The Free Spirit

Back To The Country; 1974 (Part One)

"I'm a lonely dreamer on a highway in the skies..."

The first half of 1974 was really rather uneventful. The kids went to school, Don worked on his newest album set to be released in the spring and I just sort of hung around home and read my old medical textbooks simply for the fun of testing myself to see if I still recalled all of that information, which I did. It gave me even more of a reason to consider going back to school to pursue a doctorate so that I could possibly open my own practice, but I pushed the thought aside.

I think the most challenging part about living in Sunset Tower was having to hide the chickens for six months. They lived in a rather decent sized walk-in closet that the flat had and walked around the flat when we were home, but we frequently had to hide them in cardboard boxes and assign one family member to sit with them in the car while the facility manager was there. That stressed me out the most during our six month stay at Sunset Tower. "If you didn't get those bloody chickens, we wouldn't have to hide them all the damn time!" I told my husband after an inspection.

"They're family now! The kids love 'em, Marley adores 'em and we can't just give 'em up! We've had 'em for years now!" Don defended.

"How long are they supposed to live, anyway? How long am I to be plagued by poultry in my own house?" I asked him.

"You ain't gonna be 'plagued by poultry in your own house' forever, Miss Dramatic. When we move to Nashville, they'll be back outside. You've seen the pictures of the house, it's got a huge property with a creek that runs through it and a big barn in the back. There will be plenty of room for the chickens to live and roam around and they ain't gonna be anywhere near the house," Don replied. "When I asked the guy who sold 'em to me, he said they can live from eight to twelve years. But I don't understand why ya hate 'em so much."

"I don't hate them but they do stress me out some. That one chicken bit Elton that one time and drew blood. What if it had given him some kind of disease?"

"Well, it didn't and they only get them kind of diseases if ya don't take care of 'em, and we do." Don's mind was settled on keeping his chickens and there really wasn't anything I could do to change his mind.

From the end of 1973 to the beginning of 1974, an oil crisis and an energy crisis were taking over the country simultaneously. From what I can recall, a few countries implemented an oil embargo on the U.S. and Japan for a reason that I cannot recall and petrol stations implemented rules where on certain days, only people with license plates that ended in an even number could get petrol, on other days it was those with an odd number, and on other days, it was those with a letter. Albert Hammond wrote what I thought was a hilarious song about it called 'We're Running Out', which was a reggae song about the oil crisis (Phil would later cover this song on his second album, which would be released later that year). The oil embargo ended in March, but the energy crisis went on a little bit longer. In January, power cuts started and our zone would lose power for a few hours every day at a certain time (we lost ours from noon to three in the afternoon). Daylight Savings Time also began three months early that year, usually beginning in March or April but instead sent us an hour ahead starting in January.

Also in January, Phil celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday and Pippa celebrated her third, and I tried to call Phil on both days, but received no answer on either. Early February came and Don celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday and we went out for dinner together, leaving Elton and Stacey to watch their younger sisters. Don had grown out his hair quite long by this point and looked like a member of the Bee Gees, while mine really hadn't changed much since the late 60's. In early March, Maggie celebrated her ninth birthday in a rather quiet celebration, as she didn't want to invite any friends. "I don't need any friends, they disappoint me," she said as her reasoning. It was concerning for me, to say the least, while Don seemed unperturbed. In April, Don released his second album, called Sunset Towers, and Stacey celebrated her fourteenth birthday. The album was just about as successful as his last album, and it wasn't his best work, given the fact that he had very little say on it, and he stopped caring about it all together. Stacey was happy to have a couple of friends over for her birthday and they hung out in the girls' room, banishing Maggie and Marley to the living room. Marley didn't care, as she wanted to play with the chickens, but Maggie was quite pissed off about it. As a result, she and Elton conspired against Stacey and replaced her pet goldfish in her room with carrots and Elton kept the actual goldfish in a Tupperware in his room. It took Stacey about a week to notice that her three goldfish were actually baby carrots sitting at the bottom of the bowl and she was furious with Elton for hiding her fish. In May, Marley celebrated her fourth birthday. She didn't really have any friends to invite, but we let her have a tea party with the chickens and we put little doll hats on them to please her. In June, we began to pack, and when school ended, we finished up, packed a big truck full of our things as well as a car (Don had sold most of his car collection in order to put a down payment on the new house) and by the end of the month, we were on our way to Nashville.