It’s funny the way life make it’s way through events. Much like a river, sometimes it bends and
twists through rocks and hills and sometimes it just overpowers the obstacles
in it’s way and just forces change. And
change is something that my life knows all about. My life changed, the life of my hometown
changed, and, really, the life of a nation changed. The sixties meant a lot of different things
to a lot of different people. For me it
was my coming of age and formed who I am today.
I guess every parent figures out their child’s destiny in
their heads. I guess my parents were no
different. They probably had me pegged
for finishing up my high school studies and then working as a seamstress with
my mama until I married some boy who worked down at the mill. They probably had me pegged for being a
little old housewife with a bunch of kids running around by the time I was 22. In their perfect world I’d be on the PTA and
attending church on Sundays. But like we
talked before, life is like a river.
Sometimes the current just draws you in and you just don’t know where
you will end up.
When I was born in 1949 times were different. Dexter, Missouri was just a small hiccup in the road on the way to other places. Now I guess it is just a slightly larger hiccup. Back then it was just a small farming community. That’s what my parents did…they farmed. That’s what their parents did the generation before them. There was a general store, a pharmacy, a diner, a town hall, and not much else at the time but change would come (despite Dexter’s complete opposition to change.)
I was born one Samantha Audrey Baker on September 1,
1949. Even though my parents were not
political, they thought it a good idea to name me after a former and long gone
governor of Missouri…or maybe they just named me after the state park that took
that very same governors name. Due to my
name being Samantha and the fact that I grew up on the farm (giving me my
tomboyish nature) I became known as Sam.
I spent the first ten years of my life living on the farm my
parent rented and worked on the outskirts of Dexter. Life was climbing trees and picking berries
and visiting folks and going to school and swimming down at the hole. It really was a simple time as I imagine most
childhoods are. When I was 11 we moved
into Dexter proper. My mama had gone to
school to become a teacher and my papa had become a police officer. We were nowhere close to wealthy but a far
cry from poor. Anyway we left the farm
and bought a house in Dexter. By now
Dexter had built up a bit. There was a
Five and Dime, an ice cream place in the summer, and small movie theater. We were still just a small town – nothing like
Poplar Bluff or Cape Girardeau – but getting bigger.
I suppose up until the point that we moved off of the farm I
would have been content to stay in Dexter forever. I never knew anything different but the life
I had lead already. Moving into town
proved to be a turning point for me. Even
though I still went to the same school things were different. The kids who used to be my friends now
claimed that I was different. My mama
and papa told me it was because their parents were jealous that we had managed
to improve on our living conditions.
Unfortunately, the town kids still thought of me as a country bumpkin
even though I had become much more metropolitan by the circumstances of my
relocation.
Anyway, the river of life had taken a bend and set my course
in a different way. I suppose it wasn’t
all that bad having moved. Eventually I
made friends with the kids that lived on my street. My best friend was Donna May. She lived right next door. She was a year older than me but we were in
the same grade because she flunked a year.
We were 12 when we first started hanging out…much to my parents chagrin
because there was no way they wanted Donna May’s flunking in grade five to wear
off on me. It didn’t. I still maintained good grades despite
befriending “that Donna May girl.”
Little did I know how much Donna May would change my life. Well, maybe not Donna May herself, but our
friendship would open up doors for me that would never have been opened.
Donna May had an older brother, Billy. Billy would have been 18 or 19 at the time
and had found work in St. Louis. He
would come home on the last weekend of every month to visit with his folks and
get his laundry cleaned and whatnot. When
he came back to town he always had brought with him a new rock n roll
record. I am not going to say that rock
n roll was banned in Dexter…but I am not going to say it wasn’t’. At the time, we will just say it was music
that was frowned upon. So, needless to
say, Billy sharing his music with us was quite a coup.
He told us stories of friends he had in St. Louis that were
starting up their own rock bands. He
seemed so old to us. He wore a leather
jacket and smoked cigarettes and rode a motor cycle. My daddy hated him but I suppose Billy couldn’t
have done much wrong because papa never arrested him. I guess, like a lot of small town folks, my
daddy hated him because he feared the change that people like Billy would bring
with them.
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