During our first week on the job at A.R.D. l took Dahlia and Reyann to visit the mine site. lt was noisy, dusty and not of much interest to them so we didn't stay more than a half-hour before heading back to Lovelock. Up to then, we had had no trouble with our old VW. But, as we were about a half-mile from where the mine access road met the main hiway, and in the presence of no other traffic in either direction, the car's windshield suddenly broke into 10,000 plus quarter-inch cubes covering us all. Reyann, sitting in the middle of the back seat, got the most of it, but on close inspection, was found to be fine. She had a bunch of scratches, a couple of which bled a little but was otherwise OK. None of us had any glass in our eyes.Thinking ourselves lucky,our next thought was that we should probably get a better car.
Later, after l had prepared the samples and put them on to cook,we walked the two blocks to downtown and visited a couple of used car lots. lt was about 8PM
then and since it was early June, it was still daylight. We were walking around one lot, looking at various offerings when we were joined by two Lovelock black-
and-whites driven by a couple of (presumably) Lovelock's finest. Of course, they were afraid that Lovelock's newest, registered ex car-thief (with the help of his women folk) was about to go active again. l was surprised that Lovelock had more than one police car and l would have expected Gordon Richardson to be driving one of the cars but Lovelock apparently had at least two cops in addition
to the Chief. The two officers were not as threatening as Gordon had been when l registered with him; they recommended that we do our car-shopping before closing time. We decided to do it in another town. We wound up, within the next few weeks, trading the old VW in on a new one, the first new car either Dahlia or l had owned.
Sometimes, after l had finished the assays and posted the results, l would walk to Lovelock's main street, which was also US highway 40, the predecessor of
Interstate 80, usually to visit the town's only real casino with bar and restaurant, Felix's. The owner, Felix Montell, was a very out-going guy. When he spotted a new face in his place for the second time, he would introduce himself
and buy the newcomer a drink and engage him in conversation. When he let them go, he'd direct them to the casino cashier's booth where they would get a
"Lucky Tenspot" that could be wagered at any table or slot machine or spent at the bar. l put my lucky ten on a crap table and watched it immediately vanish.On my way out, Felix wished me a good evening and we talked some more. He told me that he was in the early stages of building a new home for himself and Mrs. Montell. The casino was doing very well at that time (much
mining in progress at that time. A.R.D. was just one of many). He wanted to build a dreamhouse for the Mrs. while he had the monstrous cash flow. One thing we know about mining for sure: they all play out and are abandoned
eventually.
As it happened, l had liked to draft floorplans for dreamhouses almost from the first day l had had drafting tools. l had been working on such a design since just
before Dahlia and l got together. lt was circular, 100' in diameter, containing almost 8,000 square feet, though part of the area within the designed circle was not indoors. Of course, l told Felix about it and he invited me to bring it by, he'd
like to see it.
l stopped by a few days later with the far-from-complete drafting of the 7,854 sq. ft. round home (having two pools within the surrounding circular enclosure.)
The first thing he said when he saw it was "Wow". Then he was quiet for a couple of minutes, then said "Oh, no. That'll never work....That's no good...Oh no, Lizzy would never go for that" At that point, l gently but swiftly took back my drafting and re-rolled it. l said "Felix, this is an experimental design just to get an idea as to the desirability of circular houses and to learn what works and what doesn't. lt's not meant to meet your needs. Just off the cuff,though l gotta
figure a round house probably isn't going to work for you, however it's designed." He didn't agree and said he was thankful for my exposing him to the idea and he said he planned to take a stab at designing one himself. l encouraged that idea and told him l'd like to see what he comes up with. l would stay in touch.
Somehow we wound up keeping George's dog at the house we rented from him.
We called the dog "George", after his owner but also because that name contains three consenants which dogs hear better than vowels (which l'm told).
George was a very nice Norwegian Elkhound about three years old. A very good
looking dog and very nice with Reyann who spent considerable time with him in the tightly-fenced yard surrounding the house. One day, probably during our first week there, Dahlia asked me to bring Reyann in for lunch.Neither Reyann nor George were in the yard. As l scowered the yard in search of them no sign was seen. But after a few minutes of searching the fence line for some evidence of a breech, we saw it. George had apparently dug a ditch under the bottom wire of the fence in the soft earth, making space enough that both George and Reyann were able to pass under the fence. We both ran in the direction of their
tracks which went toward the nearby railroad yard office. Right away, we saw a man walking toward us at about the same speed that we were moving. Still about fifty feet away, he shouted "Are you folks lookin' for a Toddler?" Nobody
had seen George, he must have been well ahead of Reyann by the time she had put the fence behind her. He was probably out of sight before Reyann showed up at the yard office which was about 200 feet west of George's house.After we had visited a while with ours and Reyann's new friends, we returned home and l jumped in the car and cruised the local area (pretty much the whole town) but l
did not see George. We were residents of Lovelock for nearly a year after George ran away and whenever l was walking in that town l always thought of and looked for George, but l never saw him again.George White's main home was in the Excelsior district of San Francisco, about 340 miles from Lovelock. l
often wondered if George had done a "Lassie come home". Maybe he hitch-
hiked. l know, George was a male dog, but so was the dog that played "Lassie".
Within the first couple of months that the three of us shared Dahlia's apartment in Saratoga, l resumed the practice of oil painting. By the time we left there, l had completed four paintings, all thirty inches by forty inches. ln the first few months at Lovelock, l completed two more of the same size. My brother lrvin was an extremely good painter of non-objective art. He was an inspiration to me in my efforts to produce good work. He was also lotsa fun to be with. He had a
couple of un-sold works that he was willing to part with. l had some that l would like to sell as well. He suggested that we take a couple of days to visit some art dealers in Vegas who had bought works of his in the past. Maybe we could each sell some work and,at the same time,make up for a lot of partying together we had missed in recent years. We didn't sell anything and l didn't want to take any of my stuff back to Lovelock. A few weeks earlier the new Pershing County Hospital had opened in Lovelock and l had arranged to have my six paintings,
displayed in the main entry corridor with prices posted inside little hand-printed
cards that also contained some notes about the paintings. Nothing sold.Having
sold nothing for a long time, one can understand why l was willing to do a round-trip to Vegas and back in 2.5 days with a total of four hours sleep. So l wouldn't have to haul the paintings back home, my mom, who lived in Vegas at the time,offered to put the six paintings of mine and lrvin's two in her storage locker until l could pick them up.
On my return home, l was greatly surprised to find Paul Larch sitting at the kitchen table with Dahlia and Reyann. Paul was also a parolee who had done prison time at Soledad North. lt was a surprise to see him because when l had last seen him he was likely to be released within a few months from California
custody, but Florida had a hold on him for armed robbery and attempted murder,which could together amount to him spending the rest of his life in prison. When l left Soledad, l wished him well, but really never expected to see
him again. My first thought, when l saw him was that he had escaped somehow
between California custody and Florida custody. He was the full-bore kind of
offender that might try something like that. lt turned out that before California released him, his mother, then the CEO of Encyclopedia Brittanica, had arranged to pay someone in Florida's Attorney General's office $25,000 to drop the charges against Paul. Since parolees are not allowed to fraternize with one- another, his mere presence was un-nerving. Unbelievably,it turned out that Paul,
a certified genius, had already sought out my parole officer and got his permission for Paul and l to work together on a completely legal enterprise that
we had been thinking about since we were both at Soledad.
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