1969! What a great year. So many things happened. The first man walks on the moon, The Beatles give their last public performance, Woodstock Music Festival and many more less upbeat events. Among all of those, in December of '69, I met my neighbour, Annie Pierce for the first time. To me, that was the most eventful thing that happened that year.
Setting the stage here. Annie had lived about two miles up the road from me for probably three years or more. She was, I discovered, twenty six in late '69. I had just turned eighteen at the end of October. She had two kids but was single mom. She was very slim, maybe about 120 pounds, and had very short, reddish-blond hair and the bluest eyes and a very impish smile. She reminded me of Shirley MacLean and even wore her hair similarly to the way she did occasionally. She often wore tight fitting jeans that showed off her lower assets very well especially a slight wedging on occasion. Tiny, upturned cone shaped breasts too that were capped by very long nipples that I had only perceived through a light tee shirt at the mail box down on the corner. Quite evident because of her lack of a bra most of the time. I had never seen her drive by with anyone other than her kids so there was no man in her life, at least at this time. Anytime she drove by in her Volkswagen Beetle she would wave and smile but until December we had never spoken to each other. That all changed during the first week of December when after our first snowfall of the year I was out at the end of the driveway and clearing the pile of snow left by the snow plow. We had had about ten inches of snow the previous night. Annie came along on her drive home and stopped. Just from seeing her on her passings I had developed a crush on her so this was something new and exciting for me, talking to her. She introduced herself and her kids, Irene, aged eight and Jeremy, almost seven.
She asked me for a favour. She had seen that my father had a small snow plow on the front of his vehicle and wanted to know if it would be possible for me to use it to clear her driveway. She said her Bug couldn't handle the deeper snow and the hill on her driveway and didn't want to leave it parked down on the road. I vaguely knew her driveway and knew it was quite long and steep. "Sure," I said. "I'll get the keys and meet you there." She drove off and I went and got the keys for the truck and followed her home. When I arrived the three of them were standing at the end of her driveway and she explained that they would walk up to the house for now and she would have a coffee ready for when I finished.
It didn't take long to clear the driveway as no one had driven on it to pack the snow down except for her on her leaving a while before. The hardest part was actually getting to the top but when I did I just plowed going downhill and after about five passes it was passable. I gave her a ride down to her car and was going to leave but she invited me up for a coffee as a thank you. I accepted the offer. When we went into the house I was surprised by the interior. From the outside it looked pretty decent but once inside I could see that it was a work in progress. Many of the rooms were framed with no actual walls, only the studs. Any privacy was given by hanging curtains, or blankets. Pretty basic. The kitchen was set up with some temporary cabinets, all lowers. They were hand made and rustic but she had a decent range and refrigerator. Off to the side was a wood stove that was used to heat the place.
I guess she noticed me looking around and said "I know, it's not pretty in here but I was able to buy here for a really good price so I am willing to live like this until I can afford to finish what I can, when I can. I put pretty much all my savings into buying so am working slowly at finishing. it." She told me to sit and poured each of us a coffee and she sat opposite me at her table while her kids went into living room area to play. "I would really like to pay you for what you've done for me. What do I owe you?"
I just said "You don't owe me anything. I couldn't take money from you for such a small thing like that."
"If you're sure then, thank you. I will have you up here again to properly thank you when the kids are at school sometime." she stated. That sounded like a hint of something to come but I didn't respond to that. I was very nervous being around her anyway, so I wasn't sure what to say. "I see you outside a lot on my comings and goings." she said. "What types of things do you like to do other than the puttering I see you up to?"
"Not much, really. I like to do some wood working and stuff like that but usually don't have time for that when I am working." I told her. "Right now though I'm laid off for a couple of months until work picks up again after the New Year. That's why I was happy to help you out today. Something to do." We sipped at the coffee and I asked her "What about you? What do you do, and how did you end up here all alone?"
"It's a long story," she said. "Up until three years ago I lived with my partner back east but when that ended I managed to secure half the money from the things we had and I picked up and moved out this way with the kids to start over. I work in the social services area so was able to find work out here quite easily."
"Wow, doesn't your partner miss the kids?" I asked. "It must have been hard to get permission to move them away."
"Oh no, they aren't his kids anyway." she offered. "Their father and I split, got back together again and split again and I haven't seen or heard from him since. I guess it's been at least six years now. It seems that every time we managed to get back together I had another kid so I don't really want to see him again, although having more kids is not possible for me now anyway."
"Oh, really." I said. "That's hard to believe, that he wouldn't want to keep in touch. I know I would be at least interested in knowing how they are and how they are doing. Even wondering how you are too."
"You're kind, but you're young too, so you might think differently if you thought of them and me as a burden." she said. "That's what he thought of us. How old are you anyway? You have such mature thoughts."
"I'm only eighteen so, yeah, maybe I'll think differently later in life." I said. "I don't think so though."
"Oh don't put a lot of stock in what I say when I go on about things." she said. " I am pretty jaded. If you've made it to eighteen and still haven't got the same feelings about life as I do you might just be okay. I was eighteen when I had my first so I had to adjust to life quickly. I'm closing in on twenty-seven now, in about three months."
"That was young!" I said. "I can't imagine." I wasn't expecting this type of conversation but she seemed to want to talk so I listened and commented as I could. My coffee was finished and I said I should get back home. She stood and walked me to the door and out to my vehicle.
At the truck door she thanked me again. "You saved me a lot of walking up and down that hill. I wish I could give you something."
