Marriage. I done it. S’pose it ain’t a bad life if ya find yerself the right woman. My wife jus’ wasn’t the right one. She’d find more ways to spend money n’ ya could think of. She’d a spent a hunnert dollars a day if she had it. The whole time we was married we was broke. We was broke from her goin’ out ‘n buyin’ things we didin’t need. One time I went through the closet ‘n counted my shirts. I come up with seventeen a them things. Seventeen shirts. No man alive needs that many shirts. ‘N I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout cheap shirts either. Good shirts, dress shirts. Goddamn, you can only wear one at a time. Never said I wanted them shirts. Never had to. She’d jus’ go out ‘n buy the sons a bitches. I’d go to work, bring home the money, ‘n she’d figger out a way to spend it. When I left, them shirts was still hangin’ right there in the closet. I walked out ‘n took nothin’ but the clothes on my back.

We had a little place in The Dalles. Her ‘n the kids stayed on there. I’d swing by there when I come through that part a the country. Only reason I did was to see the kids. Most ev’ry time I went to see ‘em she was drunk, drunk outta her mind. She fin’ly drank herself to death. Died six years ago.

My two kids, a boy ‘n a girl, ain’t seen ‘em in five years. The boy must be thirteen now, ‘n the girl, she’s a year older. She’d be fourteen. My brother ‘n his wife have ‘em in Texas. When my wife died, my brother’s wife come up to The Dalles ‘n took the kids back to live with ‘em. She jus’ ‘bout kidnapped my kids from me. Been down there to see ‘em. She don’t care much for me ‘n don’t want me comin’ ‘roun’. She done her best to keep them kids from me. She turned ‘em against me. Last time I went to see the kids, my daughter was nine ‘n she was scared to death a me. She run cryin’ into the other room when she saw me. My own daughter, my own little girl wouldn’t even come near me. That ain’t a good feelin’. ‘N I never done nothin’ to make her scared a me. My brother tried to explain to his wife what she was doin’, but she wouldn’t have nothin’ to do with any kinda reasonin’. She jus’ plain don’t like me, ‘n now she’s got my kids feelin’ the same way. I’m waitin’ for those kids to grow up. Mebbe when they’s older they can understand what happened. Then I’ll be able to see ‘em again ‘n things’ll be diff’rent.

60.