Run, Lola, Run!!

 After running away several times and being caught I finally got smart! I could not get caught again cause the only one suffering for it was my stepfather........the Army figures if you can't control your home then how are they gonna let you run the army??  I so wasn't running away from him.  I just had had enough finally and had to break away from her......I don't even today know why I was a real thorn in her side but she just never let up!  After moving in with her four more kids came along, with all of them I was the one up in the middle of the night feeding them and holding them when they had bad dreams.......It was time for me to set goals for my own life and even though I was only 14 years old I knew deep inside somewhere that I could survive! Hell if I could survive seven years with her then living on the streets would be a breeze!

The first month on my own, (lol) I lived in my girlfriends closet at night! During the day while she was in school I looked for a job.........amazing how NOONE ever questioned my age!! Her mother had died and she had a younger brother and sister and her father was also in the army like my stepdad so he worked crazy hours and only home long enough to sleep and leave again (it was the during the Viet Nam war so getting guys in and out of bootcamp was all they had time for)  her younger brother and sister were not allowed in her room so I was safe in there.  After the kids were in bed she would bring me food! I thought I would never find a job but on the third day out looking I found a job at an old cannery on Cannery Row that Frito Lay had taken over. They were gonna let me work that day but I didn't have a Social Security card, they told me to come back when I got one!! Hell I had NO CLUE what they were talking about.

That night at Lindas we talked about it and she didn't know either. She called another one of our friends who knew all about it.....lmao  Back in the day you just had to go to the local post office fill out a pink card and drop it in the box.......about a week and a half later it comes to you in the mail.  Well Linda got the mail everyday cause her dad came home late so we used it as my address and being paranoid about being found we decided to create ME!  Voila........Lola Ann Freeman was created! I switched everything on the form......my birthplace, fathers name, mothers maiden name..........and it worked!! In about a week or so my first social security card came int he mail! In fact its been my ONLY social security number EVER!! And currently I am drawing Social Security off of that very card!!

I was at the Frito Lay cannery at 5 am!! There was noone there they didn't start till 6........but I waited patiently outside the door marked Personnel and pretty soon this lady showed up and let me in and gave me some papers to fill out. It was a little scary........not at all the Cannery Row you all know today! The streets were cracked from heavy trucks, homeless and winos sleeping in the doorways of closed up canneries.......It was the real Steinbeck Cannery Row!! I started work that day!!  I still had some of the money I had left with from babysitting so it never occurred to me how was I gonna get paid and if with a check what then?? I didn't care though I was on my own!!! I tried not to call attention to myself so I stayed very quiet at work just doing what they showed me on the lines and minding my own business.......about the fourth day the girl across from me asked me if I wanted a part time job.  I told her sure, doing what? Well at night she worked at a pizza parlor in Seaside and she told me that her sister did too but she was VERY pregnant and would be quitting and if I wanted to she would talk to the boss! I guess my workaholic genes rose to the top that day........the next day she told me that the boss said to come and talk to him after work.  So I rode the city bus to Seaside and met with him and his wife and got hired even though that girls sister had not quit yet!! Neither of them questioning my age......see there are benefits to being fat!! And I proudly handed them my social security card when they asked for it!!

Meanwhile I still stayed at Lindas at night but I didn't want her to get into trouble if her Dad found out so I told her I was going to start looking for an apartment! She just looked at me in disbelief.........duh?? I could do this!!  Everyday when I would get out of work I would stop in at the liquor store up on Lighthouse Ave while I waited for the bus, to either get cigarrettes of a soda. That day in the store I noticed a sign over the register that said "We Cash Checks" and by now I was carrying around three or four from Frito Lay and a couple from the Pizza Parlor!! Did not have a clue what I was gonna do with them just kept collecting them. Afterall I only made $.85 an hour for Frito Lay and $.75 an hour at the pizza place. I asked the man behind the counter what kind of checks does he cash........he asked me if I had a check and I told him I had several cause I been saving them.......he wanted to see them so I pulled out the Frito Lay checks and he laughed and told me "Oh yeah.........they all come up here to cash checks, you want them cashed??" I cannot even tell you what that feeling was like......there are no words!! So I showed him the other checks I had from the Pizza Parlor and he told me sure!!  OMG I SO WAS SURVIVING!!!

I did not work at the pizza parlor on Thursday nights so the next day after work I decided I would start looking for an apartment.  I walked up David Ave for what seems like miles straight uphill but actually it was only six blocks!! Along the way I passed several apartments for rent but they had phone numbers so I took them down but on this one corner was a huge white two story house all covered in gingerbread trims!! On the white fence in front of the house was a "For Rent" sign! So I opened the gate, it was just a very short sidewalk to the front door and I ran the doorbell.  A man probably in his 40's answered the door and I asked him if the apartment was still for rent.  He invited me in to see his mom, she owned the house.  They were so nice to me and asked things like where did I work and why did I work two jobs and she wrote a lot of what I said down........then I asked when I would find out and she looked at her son and he shook his head yes and she said to me.........the apartment is yours! OMG.......I paid two months rent right then.........(I don't think they knew about 1st, last and cleaning deposits back then!!) They took me upstairs to see the apartment, it had a seperate entrance when you entered the front door.......there was a second front door to the right which was hers and then the stairs went up to the apartment and I had a door up there!

The rent was $60.00 a month, the apartment was small and furnished right down to silverware!! And the rent included the utilities!! They handed me the key and my ADVENTURE of a LIFETIME was about to begin!!! I told them I would move in the next day and they smiled and said anytime was fine just remember to lock the downstairs door behind you! I pretty much ran all the way down the hill to Lighthouse Ave to get the bus to Lindas..........but when I got there her brother and sister were still awake so I had to sit in the park till their bedtime!!  I was so dying to tell her my news!!  It seemed forever till it was time I could climb into Lindas bedroom window and I was trying to lift my fat self into the window at the same time telling her I got my apartment!! 

Finally I was on my own!! Watch out world cause here comes honey Lola!!!  By the way, Honey BooBoo is one of my favorite "no brainer" tv shows!!