“Look I was Hot to Trot,” Spitfire began her part of the story. “I didn’t know much about anything. When I first started my period, I thought I was bleeding to death. I threw myself down on the bed and cried. Finally Gigi came in and asked me what the matter was. I showed her my stain.
She was very calm about it all, had me wash up, and sit on a hand towel while she fashioned a pad out of rags the way they did it back in the covered wagon days. Then she explained the whole thing to me.
Even though I was a good girl, I still had the hot blood of the women in our family. I was going out with the BMOC (the Big Man on Campus). He was tall and strong, good looking, and I was hot as Hell for him. We had sex in the back seat of his car every weekend in our senior year.
That’s how I got pregnant with your mother. The union was approved of by both sides of the family. Both families came from pioneer farming stock. Mama Mae and Gigi were contemporaries. Both of their husbands had fought in the Civil War. They had been on different sides. Great Grandpa fought for the North and Big Daddy fought for the South, but that didn’t matter now that the war had been over for so many years.
As much as everyone was rooting for us kids to succeed, the marriage didn’t last. The short story is we were too young. He was in the Marines. I was left alone. He cheated on me. So, I left him, moved in with Mimi, got a divorce, a job, and found another man. I was hot blooded and not about to stay single.
Dick Curtis became my lover immediately. He was good with his mouth. Both talking and in other ways. We parked up near the pepper trees at the end of the driveway. He was the second man I had been with, but he was my true love. He wasn’t your mother’s biological father, but even so, I think he loved her more and had more in common with her than the other kids.
He is your grandfather. He gave us a good life full of fun and parties and boat trips to Catalina. I think you should consider choosing another locale for your first time, my grand daughter… a car is just not that comfortable.”
(First published 3/6/14)
