Monday, February 14, 2005
FEBRUARY.....1987
February came in on a Sunday this year and I was making preparations after church to go to a DE Training at the Missouri Highway Patrol Academy at Jefferson City, MO. I was fully packed and ready to travel by bedtime because we would be leaving in the morning. It was quite a drive from Willow Springs and classes started at 1:00pm so we wanted to get settled in good time.
Warren drove me to Troop Headquarters where I met “Corky” Roberts, the other examiner I would be going with. I worked with Corky on one crew and he was a regular clown. He could join in on any conversation with an instant monologue of cartoon humor and hilarity until you were forced to laugh at him. He was a born clown who had to make his living with the State rather than displaying his real talent as a “stand up” comic.
Corky checked out the pool car assigned to us, gassed up, and we said our goodbyes to the office folk. We stopped at Rolla for doughnuts and coffee which perked both of us up since we neither had eaten much for breakfast. We arrived at the Academy by 11:15am and got our assigned room, the keys, our meal ticket and the necessary information for our stay. After leaving our luggage in our respective rooms we went directly to the dining hall.
It was a tribute to stainless steel. Everything was shining and filled to capacity. The whole area was pleasant with large windows and food adequately fixed for any appetite. My biggest job for the three-day stay was figuring out a selection of food for each meal. I learned not to eat much at lunchtime because I had an enormous desire to cat nap with the sun streaming in the windows, embracing me with it’s warmth. I feared I might wake up with the instructor standing over me with a dunce cap. The fear of humility kept my eyes open while my brain slept.
We had a “break” every hour and it helped keep us focused. The presentations were pretty generic and mostly review….I was assigned a room with one of the presenters….a Supervisor from the St. Louis Area with years of experience and confidence. She left every evening to visit a daughter and many of the other Examiners left for various entertainment after the required class time. I stayed in my room and read.
Tuesday was a full day of classes and on Wednesday we were dismissed at noon, after being presented with our Certificate’s. We ate our lunch and headed south to Willow Springs. One of the Major’s at the Academy was a brother to Otis Petrus, one of my Supervisor’s, and when he handed my Certificate to me……he said to let him know if “Pete” caused me any trouble. I was sure to tell Pete the next time I worked with him. I can’t exactly say it scared Pete much…he just laughed.
Ironically, when I returned home it seemed everything happened at once. Warren had a friend drive him to the hospital at Fort Leonard Wood so that I would have the car to drive up the next day for his surgery. Uncle Roger called to let us know the latest on aunt Mary and the news was all bad. Then uncle Tom called to tell us aunt Inabelle was in the hospital with breast cancer and strokes. She was doing well enough at the time, however, and expected to go home again. I didn’t sleep well that night but left early the next morning to be there when Warren went into surgery. He was already gone from his room when I arrived but around noon, the surgeon came out to tell me everything had gone well. I stayed with him until 3:00pm and then left for home.
I went back and forth until the day he was released, on the 16th. I took another two days off to make sure Warren could make it OK with me at work and it gave me a chance to catch up at home. I kept mom aware of aunt Mary’s condition as well as aunt Inabelle…..the weather turned wintry and we had more snow and ice. Some of the guys had gone for the next classes at the Academy so we were short handed at work. In a way it was a good thing….I had less time to worry about the family that way…..mom and her two sisters were hanging in the balance and I was beginning to realize our time with all of them would be shortened with the illnesses they had. It was a sobering time for me…….my heart was feeling cold creep in as surely as the weather…..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Warren drove me to Troop Headquarters where I met “Corky” Roberts, the other examiner I would be going with. I worked with Corky on one crew and he was a regular clown. He could join in on any conversation with an instant monologue of cartoon humor and hilarity until you were forced to laugh at him. He was a born clown who had to make his living with the State rather than displaying his real talent as a “stand up” comic.
Corky checked out the pool car assigned to us, gassed up, and we said our goodbyes to the office folk. We stopped at Rolla for doughnuts and coffee which perked both of us up since we neither had eaten much for breakfast. We arrived at the Academy by 11:15am and got our assigned room, the keys, our meal ticket and the necessary information for our stay. After leaving our luggage in our respective rooms we went directly to the dining hall.
It was a tribute to stainless steel. Everything was shining and filled to capacity. The whole area was pleasant with large windows and food adequately fixed for any appetite. My biggest job for the three-day stay was figuring out a selection of food for each meal. I learned not to eat much at lunchtime because I had an enormous desire to cat nap with the sun streaming in the windows, embracing me with it’s warmth. I feared I might wake up with the instructor standing over me with a dunce cap. The fear of humility kept my eyes open while my brain slept.
We had a “break” every hour and it helped keep us focused. The presentations were pretty generic and mostly review….I was assigned a room with one of the presenters….a Supervisor from the St. Louis Area with years of experience and confidence. She left every evening to visit a daughter and many of the other Examiners left for various entertainment after the required class time. I stayed in my room and read.
Tuesday was a full day of classes and on Wednesday we were dismissed at noon, after being presented with our Certificate’s. We ate our lunch and headed south to Willow Springs. One of the Major’s at the Academy was a brother to Otis Petrus, one of my Supervisor’s, and when he handed my Certificate to me……he said to let him know if “Pete” caused me any trouble. I was sure to tell Pete the next time I worked with him. I can’t exactly say it scared Pete much…he just laughed.
Ironically, when I returned home it seemed everything happened at once. Warren had a friend drive him to the hospital at Fort Leonard Wood so that I would have the car to drive up the next day for his surgery. Uncle Roger called to let us know the latest on aunt Mary and the news was all bad. Then uncle Tom called to tell us aunt Inabelle was in the hospital with breast cancer and strokes. She was doing well enough at the time, however, and expected to go home again. I didn’t sleep well that night but left early the next morning to be there when Warren went into surgery. He was already gone from his room when I arrived but around noon, the surgeon came out to tell me everything had gone well. I stayed with him until 3:00pm and then left for home.
I went back and forth until the day he was released, on the 16th. I took another two days off to make sure Warren could make it OK with me at work and it gave me a chance to catch up at home. I kept mom aware of aunt Mary’s condition as well as aunt Inabelle…..the weather turned wintry and we had more snow and ice. Some of the guys had gone for the next classes at the Academy so we were short handed at work. In a way it was a good thing….I had less time to worry about the family that way…..mom and her two sisters were hanging in the balance and I was beginning to realize our time with all of them would be shortened with the illnesses they had. It was a sobering time for me…….my heart was feeling cold creep in as surely as the weather…..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
