Tommy 1

Tommy, trying to show his displeasure at my nights out with Jackie, came up with a scheme which backfired. He was a first class painter.He should have known better but he took some masking paste which is used on windows to make the overspray wipe off easily and put it on the head of his penis. Showed it to me and accused me of giving him a "dose". The next day he was really in pain. The caustic substance caused the skin to peel. I tried to show sympathy but inside I was laughing. He was out of commission for a few weeks. Retribution.

I realized how serious he was about me in spite of the unfortunate way he had of showing it. He was good about watching the baby when I was out and seemed to take an interest in the child. If only he would go to work, I'd be glad to stay home, and I told him so. Our domestic life was underway and lasted for twenty exciting years.

Tommy 2 - Fishing

Tommy knew all the country around Cody, having grown up there and he had been a guide in Yellowstone as a young man. He took me into the woods to a trout stream he knew, gave me rod and reel, hook and bait, and disappeared upstream.

Lost my bait, lost my hook in some bushes and nearly lost my mind thinking about bears and moose, wolves and coyotes. Every sound froze me with fear and I was afraid to call out to Tommy lest I call attention to myself. Half an hour later, which seemed much lnger to me, he came looking for me.

"If you want me to go fishing with you, I want my own hooks and things. And don't wander off without me. I got scared." "The animals are probably more scared of you than you of them. If you make enough noise, they'll keep out of your way." He laughed, but I didn't think it was funny. However, he did see to it that I had my own supplies and taught me how to use them. And I have loved fishing all my life.

Tommy 3

Tommy found another gin player in a bar in a bar in Hollywood and, while they played, I sat on a barstool nursing a beer. Cully Weisberger and Tommy became good friends and he frequently came to our "rancho" in Topanga. Cully had his problems with the winos who hung around his bar and decided he'd had enough of them. He locked all the wine in the back room and refused to serve them. Next day, there they were as usual, marching back and forth in front of the Holly Cafe carrying placards. "This bar unfair to winos." Cully gave in. When Cully found we had a corral and a horse, he bought "Holly Miss" a mare to keep Fred's horse, Sock, a gelding, company. Tommy's full name was Dallas Robert Rousseau but after he had his band, Tommy King and his Aces of Rhythm, Tommy stuck to him.

Tommy 4

Our little house in Canoga Park had a tall palm tree by the door. The first time I experienced an earthquake, I looked out the window and saw the ground in the front yard moving in a rolling ripple and the huge fir tree shake from top to bottom. It was over quickly but the beautiful old tree began to turn brown and die. Outside I found a small bird which had been shaken from its nest in the tall palm by the door. It seemed unharmed and I heard the mother mockingbird chirping nearby. I put the bird in a strawberry basket lined with leaves and put it on the window sill. From inside the house I watched momma bird come down and feed it and one day it was gone. I loved to hear the mockingbird in the valley sing late at night and hoped one of them might be the one I'd helped to save.

Tommy 5

Mornings he'd visit a dry good store run by a Jew and be the first customer. He knew that the man believed that if he didn't sell to the first customer, business would be lousy all week.

[ Start of three lines obscured by overlapping photocopy ]
… in Lake Okechobee Swamp in … Married to the Morton salt … to keep her off junk.
Painted and grained the elevator doors in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Painted hearses. Was a car striper, freehand, and could do car detail work. He could match laquer colors by eye and you couldn't tell a newly painted rail or wheel from the original. Could grain oak, curly maple, or walnut or anything else you's want. And that''s only part of the story. We were married 17 years and lived common law for three.

[ three ¶ legible but redacted are not transcribed from manuscript
re off color first encounter with Tommy in Buckley's hotel room.]

Tommy 6

Water was low and there were 7 or 8 men who had worked all day reshingling the large frame main house. It was hot and they had been up and down ladders all day. We called a neighbor; I say a neighbor, they were five miles away, to ask if the workers could use their swimming pool. We got permission and the men were cooled off and so was our neighbor. They swam and cavorted in the nude much to the dismay of their benefactor.

Tommy 7

Another time we went to a hill where there were rings of stones which had been used by indians to keep the edges of their tents down. We hunted for arrowheads and he showed me one of their buffalo falls. They would chase a few from the herd and run them over the cliff, meat and buffalo robes and blankets against the harsh Wyoming winter.

Tommy's mother and I got along very well. I was only 18 when she made me promise not to leave Tommy and after she passed on, that promise was sometimes heavy on my heart. As I got older, I realized she had no right to control my life from the grave or otherwise and I freed myself from a promise no one had the right to make or expect to have kept. Khalil Gibran said "Give your hearts but not into each other's keeping, for only the hand of life is large enough to hold them."

Tommy 8

We pulled our little Covered Wagon trailer into a trailer park in Van Nuys. It had been a walnut orchard and many of the trees were still there. The beautiful mountains on either side of the San Fernando Valley were clearly visible. There was smog north of Hollywood in those days, no freeway beyond Cahuenga Pass.

Tommy soon had all the dealers he could take care of. Graining was still the thing in most cars, imitation wood. And Tommy was an expert at it. The money kept coming in and we were feeling cramped in the trailer.

TickTock Tea room ³

A growing boy, two cocker spaniels, us. We discovered Topanga Canyon, a community in the Santa Monica Mountains and saw a for rent sign on a house, etc. A bridge crossed over a seasonal stream to a flagstone patio and barbeque, large yard, three bedrooms, large kitchen, a real pantry, screened porch. fireplace. It was perfect. Fred had a long schoolbus trip to Canoga High where he became acquainted with other Canyon dwellers. I was surprised how many people knew him. They would say to me, "Oh, you're Fred's mother?!"

Tommy Topanga 1948

Our ranch foreman, George, fell in love with a charming lady, Kay, and married her. They moved to their own place in Topanga and a housewarming party which went on til the next day unabated, no one wanted to leave and we all had a wonderful time. Buckley and Lizbeth were there, Stuart and Liz, all of the hill people we knew. We called the folks in San Fernando Valley flat-landers. Someone, we never found out who, had spiked the punch bowl with Benzedrine, a stay awake pill. It became known as the Benzedrine Ball.