The "Best Deal" I Ever Got at Wally-World

A few months after I'd settled in back here, I ran into my old buddy Harvey (you remember the "Bananaman" story), up at Wally-World (WalMart)......... where you eventually run into EVERYBODY in town, if you hang around here long enough.

We got to talking and he says "Hey, let me introduce you to somebody," and with that, he introduced me to a very pretty little gal who was/is one of the CSM's (Customer Service Manager) up there. She was running around back and forth taking care of things (like she still does today) Donna is easy to spot and if you go to WalMart at ALL, you've seen her. She's the little redhead who's continually on the move up there.

Harvey and his wife Kathy used to babysit Donna's daughters when they were growing up, so they'd known her quite awhile. We didn't really have time to talk, because she was busy, running from register to register taking care of the needs of the cashiers.

Harv' & I walked on back toward "Automotive", and he casually mentioned that she was going through a divorce that was just about final, and was a very nice person.

"Why are you telling ME that?"

"Well", he said........"You've been GONE 8 years and don't really know too many single people up here anymore do ya?"

No.........I guess I didn't.

I found myself making a point to look for her whenever I had to go UP there for something, and pretty soon, I was "inventing" reasons to go up there. I was already well-stocked up on flashlight batteries and cans of hash.......but you never know when a TSUNAMI might leap all the way over Oregon, and hit Mountain Home......so another can or two might be prudent! Better run up there and pick up a few more!

Right along this same time-frame, Harvey calls me from a friend's house, where they're looking at old cars on the guy's computer. He asked "weren't you looking for a 55 to 57 Olds?"

"Yeah"

"Well I'm looking at a 56 that you might wanna come over here and see on this computer. It's a pretty car, it's for sale and it's in Seattle."

I drove over there, and he was right. It's a beautiful car, at a dealership in Lynnwood (just north of Seattle), and it's one of those lots that deals in classic cars ONLY. I called the guy the next morning, then jumped in a "Bug" are took off for Seattle.

The car was nicer "in person" than it looked in the photos. I went for a spin-------and BOUGHT it, right on the spot.

(There's a story within itself on this car, and I'll probably dedicate my very next blog on it).

SO..........I bought it, and for an extra $450.00, they would DELIVER it to Mountain Home in an enclosed trailer on their next run south, where they bought a lot of their inventory. Sounded good to me. I paid the man, did the title paperwork, and I headed for the Oregon Coast.

I had planned to kill "two birds with one stone". As long as I was in the Seattle area, I was close enough to the west coast to just drive a little further and spend a few days in Lincoln City, hang out at the beach and watch the surf roll in.

The Olds wasn't cheap, and I'd kept all my powers of concentration tuned-in to looking the car over good, so all the way up there, I hadn't thought about anything or anybody back here in Mountain Home.

But now with the deal done, I could relax along the road to the coast, and before I ever got to Lincoln City, my thoughts were on Donna, that cute little redhead that I STILL hadn't worked up the nerve to ask out, yet.

I checked into a Motel 6, where they'd "left the light on for me," and crashed out for the night. It had been a long day with the Oldsmobile inspection and purchase......and then the drive out to the coast.

In the morning, it was drizzling, but that didn't stop me. I had breakfast, then took a long walk along the beach. The rain was still lightly falling, out on the ocean I could see the white-caps from the rough ocean. As I trodded along in the damp sand, I saw the footprints of other people out there.....kids playing, couples walking along hand-in-hand. Crappy weather doesn't mean a thing when you're out there sharing time with someone you care about.

I didn't have anybody. Donna didn't either. I had just bought a car I had always wanted, but in the course of a few hours, it meant NOTHING. The wind was picking up, I walked past several people, huddled together, enjoying it all anyway....but I was miserable.

I had lunch, walked around town a bit, went back to my room and looked way out on the ocean as the rain started to fall a little more. I watched a little television, kicked back and wondered what Donna was doing----was she on a register? Taking care of people at the Customer Service desk? Maybe she was getting ready to clock out & go home. She was living alone in a trailer at the time.

I had planned to be in Lincoln City about 3 days, but it wasn't working out. I was having a terrible time, and I couldn't seem to make myself even take a nap. Then.....as I laid there, this "awful image" came to mind.........what if......while I was way out HERE kicking sand out of my shoes........some clown back in Mountain Home was HITTING on her?......trying to ask her out?

HOLY MACKERAL!.....some knucklehead might be planning to make a play for my girl!............(Yeah, RIGHT, dummy.......when did she become "YOUR" girl?........you haven't even asked her out YOURSELF!)

.......and I sure wasn't gonna be able to do that from LINCOLN CITY! I packed up, went down to the front deck and checked out......The night cleark sensed the anxiety and asked if the room was ok? "Is there something wrong?"

"There sure IS.......I gotta get OUT of here!", as I took my receipt and blew out the door. I topped the tank, grabbed a sandwich and a coffee "to go", and hit the road. Sleep? I'd worry about THAT when I got back to Mountain Home.

It was probably around 10 in the evening when I left Lincoln City. It was dark out, the roads were wet, and I'm headed for Portland & I-84. I was driving my 68 Beetle (that we later restored into the "Herbie" you may have seen a time or two in the AFAD parades). VW Beetles are great little cars, but a little 1500cc, 53 horsepower engine isn't going to let you "cruise" at 75-80....even a on a DRY road. This was gonna be a LONG trip back.

I left the Portland area freshly refueled and "coffee'd" and started east on that long stretch of I-84. I was already tired from lack of sleep, but the thought of getting BACK here and asking Donna out before some OTHER hammerhead did, kept me awake, along with the coffee.

In a way, this was almost stupid. I'm 56 at the time, and acting like some schoolkid............I've known my share of women in my lifetime, but there was strangely something special about THIS one. I hadn't even DATED her yet, but there was something.......I could walk by pretty women all day long up there in Wally, but whenever I'd get around HER, I wouldn't know which end was UP. This was very spooky because I have never NOT been in control of my feelings.

If somehow, SHE was the one I should have met in the BEGINING, I needed to find that out.........I needed to get home.........and with the windshield wipers slappin' back & forth and those four little cylinders hummin' along back there, "home" might as well have been in FLORIDA or something! I'd NEVER get home......and if I did, it would be too late...........I just knew it.

By the time I got into LaGrande, I was so tired, I was having to STOP every 50 miles or so, to get out and walk around------coffee wasn't gettin' it done anymore, but it was still daylight when I finally reached Mountain Home. I didn't even go home first to shave or shower.....I just drove straight to Exit 95, and pulled down into that big parking lot, peeled myself out of that old "Bug" and walked in.

The radio had never worked in that car, so I'd kept myself amused on the trip back, trying to come up with just the "right line" to ask her out. "The smoother, the better" I thought. But by the time I walked into the front foyer, sheer exhaustion had "muddled up every approach" so I figured I'd just walk around in the store "out of sight" until I regained the "dialogue" I'd figured out for myself.

But before I'd even made it to the Door Greeter......there she WAS, just stepping out of that front storage closet with a fresh stack of grocery bags!

"Hi!" says she....as my mind momentarily went south......

I'd instantly forgotten EVERYTHING I'd rehearsed, but that little "voice of conscience" we all have from time to time PRODDED me from within...............(Well-----SAY SOMETHING, DUMMY!!)

I guess it's when we're the most exhausted, our "guard" is down and we're the most OPEN as well....

I was so drained, I don't remember EXACTLY what I said, but it was just a SIMPLE something to the tune of "Donna, would you go out with me sometime?" and then I guess I probably braced myself for a "No", because I'd procrastinated too long and she was probably SEEING someone else by now........I was caught off-guard in the foyer-----I didn't have time to put some "smooth line together".........

But she said there was a dance at the Elk's Lodge that coming Saturday night, if I'd like to meet her there (a smart gal never lets some dude know where she lives until she knows she can trust him) I understood that, and felt a lot better when I DID get home that night. I slept like a log after that long stretch from Lincoln City!

We hit it right off......and she wasn't seeing anybody. I could probably have stayed those few extra days in Lincoln City, and taken my time getting back, but I was glad I didn't.

I ran into Harvey at the gas station the next day, and he asked if I'd bought the Oldsmobile.

"Oldsmobile..........what Oldsmobile?"

"The one you just went to Seattle to look at!"

"Oh THAT one........uh, yeah, I bought it.....it'll be here in a couple of weeks." I was still walking around in a fog.

This is a bit personal, but I'll put in on here anyway. At the Elk's Club dance, there was no live music, just a D.J. playing recorded music. The second dance we danced to was Anne Murray's "Could I Have This Dance?, and we just kind of "bonded" from there, and it has pretty much become "our song", since then.

What was really cool, was on our second date, I took her to the Carmela Winery in Gleens Ferry for supper, where I was also playing lead guitar for Curly Surles that night down there, and I dedicated that SAME SONG to her over the microphone, then played it instrumentally on my guitar. The rest, as they they, is "history"

And a week or so before we got married, I drove her out to Lincoln City (in the T-Bird this time), stayed at the same Motel I'd been in.....and walked her down that same stretch of beach! Only THIS time, I wasn't worried about somebody asking her out (back there in Mountain Home.

WalMart........."save money, live better"............well, I've never really been too sure on how much money I've SAVED in that store.........but I sure do live better OUTSIDE of it..........for the last six years now!

PS...........the "Vietnam-Honeymoon period" was an interesting story, and I'll post THAT one, right after the Oldsmobile segment.