Chapter 13 A Geologist and a Gentleman

Right after I arrived in Bartlesville, I realized there were a lot of people trying to leave. Women mostly. By that I mean I got the impression there were a lot of women that wanted to be taken away from Oklahoma, much as the young women wanted to leave the Navy town in An Officer and A Gentleman, by marrying a professional that worked for Phillips. I got some sage advice from someone who had lived in Bartlesville. "Don't get involved." "Have fun, but don't get involved with the local girls." Well, I managed to follow that advice until in the late 80's but that story comes later. There were a lot of women who were looking for someone to take care of them. The first I met was a gal named Vickie. A pretty waitress at the DI, and she was going to school working on a degree. She wore these great halter tops and seemed like a magnet for guys. We got intimately friendly, but never had sex. She was pretty well known at the DI. Ultimately she got a degree, went to work for Phillips in their computing mapping group in the same building I had been in, but only after I had left the company. She had a knack of getting involved with insanely jealous men. I remember one day seeing her by the Adams building and her asking me not to walk her out of the building because her boyfriend was waiting to pick her up and she didn't want trouble. I hope she finally found the right guy. Another was a local gal who was Filipino but pure Okie. Her name was Debbie. I knew her from the DI where she was a regular. I had made a play for her once and she along with a bunch of other people had ended up at my house. I remember her walking in and taking a look around. She was incredulous that a bachelor had a well decorated home. She said, "I can't believe this is your place. Any woman would love to have all this." Now I don't know if she meant it to sound the way it did, but alarm bells went off and I never pursued anything else with her. She dated an engineer friend of mine for a while but he just could not stand her personality. She would hold court in the Ladies' room like something out of a teen movie. Eventually I introduced her to another co-worker, well actually two of them. They were both interested so we went on a triple date. Debbie and a friend of hers, the two guys and me and my Future Ex #2. The geologist of the two got Debbie. They hit it off despite my warnings. Moved in together, he was putting her through community college, and got word of a transfer to Calgary. Well, as you can expect, he really didn't want to take any baggage along. Before he could give her the bad news, she pre-empted him and announced she was pregnant. So being a good guy (he was, a top notch geologist, and a dependable dive buddy) he did the right thing, even if he was crazy to do it. They ran out and got married, and whoops! she lost the baby. Not that there ever was one mind you. Anyway the hook had been set and eventually they did have two kids. The last time I heard they were in Cairo, Egypt and he was working for one of the majors there. So she got her wish and got to travel the world. I only hope she learned to like fish. I don't think any of her friends were as successful. They were attractive, but by any measure were as dumb as the proverbial bucket of rocks. Too bad, what a waste, all that beauty and no brains. I tended to play this angle for all it was worth. I never made any promises; I just let them fool themselves. I remember meeting a gal at the DI just before my transfer to Houston. We had a tremendous one night stand; this gal was on the cusp of BBWdom but was still young and had a rack like two big pillows. Wonderful. She liked to talk dirty too. Well I didn't see her again until I was dating Future Ex #2 and we were at the Red Apple. She came up to me and good naturedly kidded me about how I had disappeared off the face of the earth. I told her I had been transferred, and she nodded. Then it dawned on her that I had to have known but didn't say anything. Okay I was guilty of omission, but not commission. There were a few others but I hesitate to say that they were really looking for a way out of B'ville as much as they just didn't know what they wanted and were looking for a good time.