Chapter 4: Couples and Coupling

While I spent a lot of time on the ball fields, my girl friend bar tended at the Quarter's Club. She worked with a nice group of young women. Some of whom stayed loyal to Larry Lively and made the move to his new club over on Frank Phillips Blvd. I think it was called Lively's. or MacDougal's or something like that. One gal in particular sticks in my mind. She became a bar tender at the new location and got a pair of nice breast implants. I got a critique by my girl friend (future ex #1) who had seen the before and after. In her estimation the gal went from tube socks to snow cones. All I can say is they looked marvelous in her clothes. But I digress. Couples. Yes, there were a lot of couples around. Not always committed mind you , but we tried. Future Ex #1 finally got her OK nursing license and landed a job at Jane Phillips Memorial Hospital as a charge nurse. There were too few RNs at the time so she shot up in the ranks. She was responsible for dragging JPMH into the 1980's with regard to dress. She refused to wear a hat, and wore white running shoes. This was not popular with the Hospital Administration, but the doctors to their credit stood behind her. Then she started wearing pants. The rest is history. Before this they still required the nurses to wear dresses and nursing hats and those white leather shoes. Groovy. Anyway my German American sweetheart single handedly came in like Guderian's panzers in the Ukraine and changed the hospital's policies. About this time she met the manager in charge of the SAGA (Soviet Attempt to Gag America) Food service at the hospital cafeteria. His wife was an interior designer that looked like a young Diane Cannon. She was a dish. His name was Randy, I can't remember her's. Another couple were white neo-colonials from Kenya. He was in the Phillips insurance group. I think he was actually an employee for Traveler's but seeing how PPCo and Travelers were in bed together; they had offices in PPCo's buildings. He was kind of a smarmy guy. He saw me out dancing with other women so took it as an invitation to hit on Future Ex #1. Now mind you, his wife was classic British. She had a pie round face, red cheeks, and curly blonde hair. You just could not help but smile when you looked at her pleasantly freckled face. She was on the short side a bit shorter than my Future Ex #1 but had her beat by a mile in the rack department. No slouch she in that department. She was an RN at the hospital as well but at the Annex on the west side of town. That is where I happened to be when I went in for a hernia repair in early 81. Since my Future Ex #1 was a bit jealous she made sure that a male orderly and not our RN friend shaved my private parts. Later after I was released and the couples were meeting over drinks I brought a crimson shade to the lass's face when I asked my Future Ex #1 if it was normal for the floor nurse to check a patient's incision every half hour. The waves of knowing laughter drowned out her pleas of innocence. After my Future Ex #1 and I went our separate ways I was persona non grata with the other couples. It is funny how once close friends seem to think you have something contagious. Well he eventually got involved with his secretary and she divorced him. At least I cheated and got divorced before I had any kids to drag through the mess. It took him too many years to get enough balls to do what he had wanted to do all along. And even then it took him getting into a position of responsibility above his would be partner in order for him to do it. Last I heard his ex-wife and kids were still in Bartlesville. I have mentioned the Danish Pastry and her husband. He has I think gone on to great success in Atlanta. At the time there was a real sense of inferiority on his part as he was in school and we were all working. He had two kids with the Pastry a boy and a girl. Nordic god and goddess. Blonde and beautiful like their mother. Trouble was she wasn't happy. I remember a July 4th party at their farm rental of Nowata Road. She was pregnant fit to burst. It was the first time I ever saw a pregnant woman parade around half naked with her belly hanging out. We all got drunk, the food manager and his wife, the couple from Kenya, the Pastry and her husband and me and Future Ex #1. Even then she made it known she was interested. I was drunk and a little obtuse, but it became more than clear later when she called about playing on the volley ball team. The party was a hoot until the dipshit from Kenya decided that the row boat we were paddling around the small lake would look better upside down. This is the kind of shit for brains that kills someone else by accident then says he didn't mean to do it. The boat tipped and I remember getting coming up under the overturned boat in pitch black water. Then I got hit in the head with an oar. I was not happy. Had someone gotten disoriented in the dark water, this was midnight mind you, and we were all drunk, we could have had a drowning. On another occasion, we had get togethers at the Kenyan couple's house. It was okay, but they were not much in the way of hosts. The food service guy new how to throw a party. They lived on the southwest side in our future neighborhood. They had a super bowl party when San Fran played Miami. Joe and Dan went head to head. Great party. His wife and I won the pot. While on the subject of his wife... She was a hot number that really let her hair down when she had a few. Too much touchy feely and kisses. This made me uncomfortable and it made him a bit jealous. I think this was the downturn of our relationship. I can't blame him. I wouldn't have liked it either. We hunted together with the Kenyan fellow, but they wanted to make it too much like a competition. The problem was they were not very good shot gunners and took it hard when I always out shot them. Randy and his wife eventually got a transfer to Florida and moved away. Another couple, Jim and Liz, are still with Phillips. She was the Kiwi on a mission having met Jim in the Perth office. She came to visit him and was determined not to leave single. My Future Ex #1 was her maid of honor in the OKC wedding. I don't think the old girlfriend was invited. Jim has gone on to VP status at Phillips. All of us that played ball with him knew he was on the fast track. Being an OU fraternity alum did not hurt him a bit. Well as things progressed I got to know the Danish Pastry better. She opened a shop on Phillips Blvd over the old barbershop and business went gangbusters for a while, then she had to downsized a bit. They had moved into town and had all of us over and I remember getting some particular vibes from her. She struck up a close relationship with my Future Ex #1, and before I knew it we were in a hot and heavy affair that lasted for about a year on and off. We grabbed it where we could, the seat of my truck, her house or mine. I remember parking on the RR right of way near the west exit of Johnstone Park near the old Kids Amusement Park, one rainy night and being interrupted by a RR employee who told us we were trespassing. That was pretty funny. You've never seen two people get dressed so fast! Our little affair continued up until we both got divorced and neither of our respective spouses never knew. It was only when she professed that she was in love with me that I had to break it off. I was not going to rub our affair in my then Ex #1's nose, since the Pastry was supposed to be her best friend. She did admit to me that her friendship with my Ex#1 was based solely on a desire to get to know me better. It just goes to show that you can never underestimate the wiles and guiles of a woman.