Halloween with Theresa and Rick

Halloween with Theresa and Rick

Me and Rick - Halloween 1976

I'd recently moved into a house at 32^nd and Alder in Eugene. My new roommates were Rick and Dave. My friend Tom lived in the attached studio that was once the garage. The studio had a door into the kitchen of the main house but it was generally kept locked. A few months after I'd rented the house Tom moved out making the studio available. I was not enjoying sharing a space with the other Dave so I was considering moving into the studio.

Rick and I got along well. Rick was from the northeast like me and we shared that east coast trait of being direct with little consideration about being diplomatic. Rick was mild mannered and unassuming but Rick would tell me exactly what he thought about something I said or did without any of the usual west coast filters. We did this without any animosity. We could discuss and argue without taking offense. It was refreshing for me as that was the culture I grew up with. I didn't realize how much I missed that. I think that's one reason Frank and I got along so well. Frank grew up in California and while he didn't have that east coast edge he was not shy about telling you what he thought. Some did take offense to him at times. Rick and I had become pals so I was having a few reservations about leaving him with Dave. Rick got along with Dave better than I did but still. I decided to interview a few people for roommates and see how it went. It was well into the fall term. That meant most students had already found a place to rent for the school year but it also meant there were few places still available. I expected the pool of potential renters to be small.

A couple of people inquired about the ad but the first person to show up at the house was a woman named Theresa. Theresa was a larger-than-life attractive woman with a soft almost little girl voice. She came with both a dog and a cat. Of course that meant her choices for places was limited. We got along right away and spent the entire afternoon chatting and smoking some weed together. The place I rented obviously allowed pets as I had my dog Nyshia. I'm allergic to cats so if Theresa was going to move in one of us was going to need to live in the studio. Theresa was a little concerned about Dave once she met him. She was especially interested in the studio. She needed a place to live and the studio would be perfect for her, so by the end of the afternoon I ended up renting Theresa the garage studio which left me me in the main house with Rick and Dave.

While Rick and Theresa were nicer to Dave, they never became friends with him either. They used to both question and laugh at me for the way I interacted with him. Rick, Theresa, and I became buddies and did lots of stuff together. Theresa was bisexual. She met people easily whereas Rick and I were more introverted. Theresa wasn't a student and in fact I don't think she had ever attended college but she never let that get in her way. She made friends easily and she was comfortable around everyone. She seemed to fit into any situation all while being just who she was. Theresa was always up and ready for doing just about anything. Being with Theresa was never dull. She was outgoing, animated, and out-front, but always nice. Theresa had a presence and there was minimal down time being around her.

The three of us would go out together. Going out with Theresa was a little different. When we were in a club she'd be eyeing all the men as well as all the women, including the same women that Rick and I were checking out. Since she was the outgoing one that usually meant she'd end up leaving Rick and I to ourselves. Eugene did not have many night spots. Oregon's liquor laws were rather strict as in that an establishment could not serve alcohol unless it was primarily a restaurant. Eugene had a population of about 75K in those days. There was not enough population to have any clubs dedicated to any one crowd especially a smaller group like the Gay/Lesbian crowd. Clubs, and it might have only been one, frequented by that crowd were mixed with a straight crowd as well. When we were out with Theresa those were the clubs we'd frequent. Rick and I soon discovered that when we went places with Theresa we were probably only going to meet people through her or not at all. We always had a good time so we did stuff together frequently.

Me and Theresa - Halloween 1976

Theresa loved recreational drugs more than any other person I ever met. She was good size, maybe 5' 9” and she had a high tolerance. If we were smoking pot she always needed one more joint. If we were doing something else she would need just a little bit more than we did. We went dancing, to bars, and parties together. I got invited to a Halloween party by a woman in one of my classes. I think she had a crush on me. Theresa, Rick, and I got all costumed up putting on all kinds of things with no particular focus on being any particular thing or person. Theresa helped Rick and I prepare. Theresa had lots of ideas. Plus, she was not too far from our size and she had lots of stuff in her closet we could use. We got all dressed up and then did some drugs and eventually headed over the party. On the way we hooked up with a couple of other friends. The woman who invited me to this party was just a sophomore, probably just 19. Her father was a professor at the university. What I did not realize was she was still living at home. As we reached the house I realized the party was at her folks house. We were now a group of five and all 23 or older, not to mention we were all completely loaded. As we approached I didn't hear a peep coming from the house. This party was going to be a bit too sedate for the likes of us. It started to dawn on me that we were too outlandish and freaky for this party and it was going to be awkward for someone, namely me. We were already loud and rowdy. I was thinking the young woman who invited me was not going to be prepared for me and my friends all dressed up weirdly and tanked up on drugs. Besides, I was the only one that was actually invited! I turned around and tried to stopped everyone. With everyone loaded it took some some effort to gain their attention. I managed to convince them that we should skip this particular party. So after a bit of discussion we headed out to another party we knew about, one we might fit in with. The next day in class the woman who had invited me was kind of miffed, I assumed about me not showing up, but maybe she saw us in the driveway. She made a point of not sitting next to me. I can't blame her but I still think it would have been worse if my friends and I had actually gone in. I think I made the right choice, although you could argue I had made the wrong choice in the first place by getting weirdly dressed up and getting high on a bunch of drugs. Well any chance of going out with that girl was gone, and just in case I perchance thought otherwise, she made sure to never sit anywhere near me in that class again.

Theresa, Rick and I hung out together all year long. That spring Rick got himself a girlfriend, Connie. At the end of the school year he moved in with her. Theresa moved out of the studio later that summer and I moved into the studio. I found a roommate to replace Rick and when I moved into the studio Dave found one to replace me. We still all got together from time to time but with Rick having a girlfriend it was often just me and Theresa.

Theresa would eventually move to South Lake Tahoe and work in a casino. She would only last there for a year after which she moved to the Bay Area where we reconnected and would occasionally get together. She told me she had to get out of South Lake Tahoe as drugs were too accessible and she couldn't control herself from over using. I lost track of her when she moved out of the Bay Area a year or so later.

Rick continued with grad school and went on to be a Doctor. He did his internship in the Bay Area and so we were able to meet up once in awhile. I eventually hooked up with Kris and I think he left the Bay Area but I don't know for sure as we lost touch.

I never saw or heard from Dave ever again....