Delores Privette

This photo is a recent one taken of me at age 79...it's been a long journey! In September of 1943 I was born in my grandparents' little rental house in Bennington, Oklahoma....when there was a Bennington, Oklahoma. Doc Tony delivered me at home...and at that time he did all the medical care and even made house calls. Doc Tony also owned the only drug store in town where he concocted medical potions in a back room....quite a contrast to the adjacent soda fountain where we got ice cream cones. Grandma and Grandpa Privette never owned a home, never had running water and only their last house had electricity. Grandma baked me cookies on her cast iron wood stove...which were often kind of blackened around the edges....but I loved them. My Dad was military, and he was stationed in New Guinea during my entrance into the world. My family traveled, and I never had a stationary home until I was an adult with my own home. I married the first time when I was fifteen years old. In retrospect, it may have been partially due to my parent's escalating alcoholism. When I married, I dropped out of High School....the teachers kept saying how smart I was...I aced all the IQ tests. So I decided I could get along without my high school diploma. I was so wrong! I had my only son at age seventeen. By the time I had my son I realized I was trapped in an abusive marriage....and no one wanted to hire a high school dropout no matter how smart. As it turned out, I couldn't support myself, much less the two of us. It took me several years to free myself from that marriage. I went to barber school....and was the first woman to graduate from the International School of Barbering. I started work just as the Beatles and long hair landed on our shores. That, coupled with the bias against female barbers made it impossible for me to make a living. But then I discovered the GED test and was was able to start back to school. I first went through a 2 year nursing program (ADN). Years later I got my BSN and finally my MSM. It only took me something over fifty years to get done dropping back into school, but I finally stopped having the dreams about going back to school that haunted me so frequently at night.....until I got my Masters. My personal life was even more chaotic, with a total of five marriages so far. My fourth marriage to Wallace was my only successful marriage.....I would still be with him if he hadn't died. He died a little over a year after my only son, Robert died. They were my blessings....along with my little brother, Steve...they were the three people I thought I couldn't live without. Maybe I jinxed them by feeling that way, because I lost them all. I still have my brother, Rick....and I am so thankful for that. We are now close, but I helped raise Steve from infancy so he was more like another son than brother. I married again...for the fifth time....about a year after I lost my family. I so wanted a family....or just a special person...but that marriage was a disaster, so I got another divorce. Life's too short to be miserable....and/or abused. So now I'm on my own for the first time in my life. I love it, and I hate it.....I want someone to love but it scares the hell out of me! After my heart surgery I retired and now I'm writing and self-publishing....as I've always wanted to do, so that's good. I'm dating more than I ever did before in my life.....mostly younger men. Men my own age seem to prefer younger women so if it works for them, why not for me? And surprisingly, many young men like older women. I'm still looking for that special person, and quite frankly, I don't care one whit about the age. It's that special person that I'm searching for.

My dad was Reuben I. Privette, my mother was Elsie Stroud Privette. I had two brothers: Richard I. Privette who is a VietNam veteran, still suffering the effects from that horrid war. Steven Privette was the youngest child, and we lost him to AIDs in 1988. I lived with him and tried to save him from that terrible illness, but nothing could save him back then.