Housekeeping Chores:
1. A reminder to click on the Bodine-DILLIGAF blog on the right side of the page. Actually you need to check them all out from time to time, but B-D has been posting about everyday now for a couple of weeks. Jeff's posts are hilarious and insightful and if you can check mine out for a couple minutes a day, do yourself a favor and read his as well. He's a far better writer than I am. Funnier, too.
2. Thanks to a couple readers we have BFE Reporter Monday posts for the next three weeks. Once again, if you have anything at all please send them to bfereporter@yahoo.com and let me know if you want mentioned or would like to remain secret. This will be one of the last calls for submissions. I think you have the idea by now.
The Boxcar
Today's Flashback goes way back to somewhere around 1983-84. Here I am in the Boxcar: a nice little place I had up near what is now Hawthorne Center in G-Burg. It was a small 1 bedroom house that just happened to originally been a boxcar. After World War II there was a need for housing and so the Northern part of town adjacent to what was then a hospital for returning soldiers as well as housing for 160 German POW's. After the war it was deemed surplus and it became Galesburg State Research Hospital until it was closed in 1985.
So I was in the Boxcar a few years when I started the career at the Mary Davis Home. I got a dog named MINS (Minor In Need Of Supervision) and this suited us well, except for that horde of slimy-ass snakes in the back yard. These pictures survived the flood and can't tell you much except it looks like I am drinking a Miller Lite. I may have been entertaining the current Mrs. Blythe, but who, here, must have been auditioning for the position.
Is that a glass of wine? Hmmm. Curious. It looks like I am looking at a photo and by the looks of it, I had a green thumb. An ancient TV set is to the right and, my my, perhaps the audition went well since there is a guitar in the corner. And I never had one.
Yes, this must have been an early photo right after the current Mrs. Blythe and I got hitched. The Boxcar was scene of a few pretty good parties. The MDH crew was always prepared to party and back then, it was a civic responsibility. We all made so little money at our work that it was important to consider our get-togethers as a fringe benefit. We were still simply a county entity without the state salary structure that would, in a few years, make working at the Mary a bit more pleasant.
I was still a Counselor at this time and within a couple years we would move on to Grove Street and kidlings. I would retain the 80's porno look for a few years yet. It helped win me the current Mrs. Blythe so I wasn't so sure tossing it aside would be wise.
The Boxcar was improved while I was there, with paint and new siding. We also tore down a wall separating the front porch with the living room, making it a very good sized room. It was here we confirmed the original use of this home when we saw C B & Q painted on a very old, very rustic looking boxcar. If memory serves, a few co-workers would start referring to me as Boxcar Willie.
The place was perfect for me and looking back, it was a pretty good start to a pretty good career. There were some memories worth noting:
- MINS would escape every so often even after I put up a fence around the place. Then I would walk up and down Bateman Street with a bag of food and a bowl of milk to entice her back.
- It was where we discovered one of the heat ducts had dislodged itself from a pipe. So that's why my heating bills were so high and I was colder than hell in that place.
- A couple of Bob Mason's friends, Paddlefoot and Tuscon, did the remodeling. For a few 12-packs of beer.
- I usually walked about 6 blocks down to get the Sunday paper at Giant's grocery store. I remember heading out on winter morning and had to turn back halfway down the block because it was so cold, snowy and windy.
- It was where my neighbor, Fern Caves, would have to call me every once in a while to ask me turn my Harry Chapin down.
- It was where Mike Johnson, one of my all-time buddies, would spend a little time on the Swiss Chalet room in the back. We fancied the room up a bit.
- We had a graduation party for MINS from obedience training and Jeff Sutor bought a giant bone from Thrushwood Farms. Weighed almost as much as she did, and seeing her drag that around from spot to spot was comical.
MINS was a great dog. I recall referring to you often at the time as "Boxcar Blythe". We were all young at the time and had even less sense than we had money. If that was possible. It was a great group to work with and I have many fond memories of those days.
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