Someone to Drink and Fight With

It would be dishonest to portray Mike and Audrie as a wholesome happy couple. They loved each other, no doubt, but how they chose to express their love was kind of backhanded. Mike was an alcoholic and, until he turned 60, he was a mean drunk. He liked to hurt feelings and had a predator's intuition for his victims vulnerabilities. She could turn a blind eye to his depredations unless they were aimed at her. As their kid, mom was never going to save you from dad. What ever was the problem, it was the kid's fault.

All of the kids left home long before they turned 18. This left the adults to duke it out with each other.

As a young adult, I blamed her for not leaving him, for putting up with the abuse. I would see her oscillate between being his drinking buddy (which seemed to pacify him) and trying to be sober, which made her a "you think you are better than me" target.

Then he turned 60. Suddenly the raging alcoholic turned into sweet little old drunk guy. He quit fighting anyone and this created a crisis.

She had lost her fighting partner. For maybe two years, she constantly tried to needle him into a spat. The illusion of Audrie as the victim was dispelled.

They loved each other, no doubt, but it was with such ferocity that it could look like hate. 

The Drunk Crossing

Not sure of the year, but I remember the night Mike and Audrie installed the cross walk between Sam's Pastime and Uncle Bill's Bar. My grandfather painted the sign.

That Crazy Lady

I asked AudAngel how she would like to be remembered. She said, "As a fun person." 

The Hard Part: in the dustbin

Letting the AudAngel fly away on her new wings wasn't the hard part. The hard part is taking the drawers full of folders, each holding some creative effort or scrap of memorabilia, scanning for it's importance, salvaging the paperclips, and letting her work and memories fall into the dustbin. AudAngel's soul was witty, poetic, fiesty, and organized.  She had all letters and cards received dutifully filed. She wrote letters to companies and politicians ... and filed them. She applied for copyrights and patents. She carried on as though her family was a bore, but any letters or cards from the family have only today (5/25/2022) been lost to the dustbin of time. She loved us all in her headstrong way. Discarding her soul, one scrap at at time hurts.

Who is this? Punky??

This lady is on a sheet with a photo of teenager Rodney on a motorcycle with young Norma and little kid Audrie. I suspect Linda had it printed. Any info?

UPDATE: Linda says it is Mary Kinney, Huck's wife. 

Huck and Fred: some resemblance

At lunch there was some discussion of how much Huck has come to look like his father. What do you think? What year was this? When did Norma and Fred move to Grand Junction?

Truly an Angel Now

Audrie died of cancer on 22 April, 2022. But she has some unfinished business in cyberspace. As a former reference librarian, she likes things in order. The task of organizing her photo collection has fallen to her daughter. It is going to require the collective wisdom of the extended family to identify and date the photos. It will be fun to share them and we will do our best to channel the sassy AudAngel back into her blog.