Wanda Marries Bill

Wanda helped raise me as I said in an earlier post. I think she moved out of mom and dads house when she was 20 or so. I know she at one point worked as a Telephone operator, but that's the only job I know about. Before she moved out she was my defacto mom. I often thought she might be my real mom, but was assured that was not the case.

Wanda married Bill Pipkin and they lived in Louisiana and south Texas.

Bill worked for Haliburton in the oilfield. He was what was called a mud-engineer. In drilling oil wells, they use a lot of mud, and cement to reinforce the wells as they are drilled. (Google that if you want more info.)  Wanda and Bill had 4 kids. Vivian (Vip), Kathy, Toni, and Wayne. Later on Wanda adopted Toni's daughter Kandice, and Toni's son Jeffery. (Don’t get me started on that mess).  I didn't go to their house much to visit, because of the girl to guy ratio, and Wayne was a lot younger than me.

Just a quick story about Bill.

I think Wanda and Bill lived in Victoria, or close by at this time.

One day Bill asked daddy and me to go with him to visit a rig site (it’s called a location). We got in his car and took off. You have to understand that these locations were mostly out in rural areas. The roads were 2-lane, and a lot were not paved. We were on a dirt road and Bill said to daddy, “Charlie did you see that water moccasin I just run over? It’s got to be the biggest one I’ve ever seen". Bill stopped the car and both he and daddy jumped out the front doors and left them open. I was in the back seat and stayed in the car. Both daddy and Bill wore work boots, and they were protected from the snake. I was wearing flip-flops, or sneakers, so they told me to stay in the car. Both of them were yelling that the snake was wrapped around the rear axel of the car. They kept saying it was hurt, and really mad, just flinging its self around striking at nothing and every thing. While this is going on, I was still in the car with the front doors wide open. Bill said the snake was moving towards the front of the car and looked like it was going to get inside one of the front doors to get into the cooler air inside the car. They kept this up for what seemed a half hour until I was crying my eyes out. They had finally had enough fun teasing me and told me it was a joke. SOME JOKE. I think I peed my pants besides crying in front of them. Bill was always pulling practical jokes on people and that one remains fresh in my mind to this day. I’ll never forget it.