June 1, 1968 A day in the life of...
June 1, 1968 was a Friday. I got up that morning and had a whole day to kill in Haskell. The spring flood was in full swing and the Arkansas River was out of its banks. The bridge two miles east of Haskell had dropped the west end spans and water had come within a mile of town.
I drove out to look at the water across the highway with others, and while Chris Quinn and I was leaning against my 55 Ford, his dad pulled up and said he needed us to help him with a favor.
The favor turned out to be driving to the Muskogee Veteran's Hospital to give blood. Seems an old buddy of Chris's Dad, Bob, was needing donations and we were Bob's choice. I had never given blood! I would never on purpose let someone stick a needle in me when I'm not sick. But Bob did not seem to care and it came across as almost a dare. So Chris and I rode with him to do the deal. It did not take all that long and when we were finished they set us in a chair and gave us grape juice. I took a look at the juice and said to Chris, "I guess they took out too much and want us to drink the extra blood." Chris just looked at me weird and passed out! The nurse got excited, Bob got excited, and I laughed.
Later that night Carol and I headed for Dallas in my Dad's 66 VW Bug. We made it as far as Durant and the car suddenly shut down. We drifted off the road near an all night truck stop and had no clue what was wrong. At midnight we called my uncle (who fortunately lived in that fair city). He came to the diner and set with us while the car battery was on the charger. We finally left about 1:30 am and headed to DenisonTexas. We found the Cardinal Motel at 2:00 am with a vacancy and loud people in the next room. We retired for the evening hoping the car would start the next morning so that we could make it to a new amusement park called SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS. We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time.
All in all it was a day that I will never forget! Besides watching a flood, giving blood and car trouble in a strange town we spent most of that evening at the church in Haskell. This was our wedding day! Chris Quinn was my Best Man besides being a fellow blood donor.
GREAT DAY, a GREAT NIGHT and the car started the next morning.
Happy 40th Anniversary, BABE.
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