Edited By Barney R. Messed with by me.

Author’s note: This story was inspired by some somber events in my life and the song ‘Black Night’ sung by Dr. John and written by Jessie Mae Robinson{br}

A dark night, a dark mood, and a cabin in the woods.

March 1988

It was a cloudy night in mid-March in the Manistee National Forest. It was after midnight and my mood was blacker than the outside night. There was a good fire going in the fireplace, but the flames did nothing to soften my mood.

My name is Tyler Andrew Thompson, and when I was sitting in that cabin I was 39, and ready to quit the human race. I wanted to just roll up the sidewalks and roads to my cabin and keep people away

The events leading up to that dark mood started in 1972 when I met Carla Potaki at a bar while I was celebrating another semester of night school being successfully completed.

I arrived at the pizza parlor/bar at about 9:00. I had completed my final exam and was allowed to leave the class. My friend Frank Simmons was with me as we drove from school to the bar. (Oh, to be 22 again.)

We went in and sat down and ordered a pitcher of drafts. We ordered a large garbage (that is what we called it) pizza. It was an eighteen inch Chicago style pizza with everything but anchovies. After the pizza was gone, we ordered another pitcher and Frank noticed two ladies in a booth by themselves. He told me he knew one of the ladies and was going to see if we could join them.

He talked to them for a couple of minutes and waved me and my pitcher over. Introductions were made, and Frank sat next to Shirley Stedmen, and I was introduced to Carla. Shirley was sort of squat and carried a few extra pounds but was a very bubbly person. Carla was sort of shy, a condition I would normally have shared, but I was filled with more than three glasses of rented beer, so I proceeded to try and draw her out.

We talked for a couple of hours and a few more glasses of beer. Carla started to hold my hand under the table. (I guess beer trumps shy). When the night ended we closed the place and I escorted her to her car. She gave me her address and phone number and said, “Call me, I had a great time.”

I promised I would.

That was Friday, I called right after I got out of work and before going to school Monday evening. Carla seemed surprised that I called. “I have been asked for my phone number a lot, but never got called. You didn’t ask, I gave it to you and you called.”

“Why wouldn’t I call? A beautiful woman spends an evening with a geeky stranger and then asks for more. I would be totally stupid not to see if we could be compatible.” Then I asked “Would you go with me to a play this coming Saturday.

She agreed, and that started our dating. We dated exclusively through all of the rest of 1972, and I asked her to marry me on Valentine’s Day of 1973. We were married on June 1, 1974. We did most of the newlywed things and had a great marriage. At least for the first year.

On Valentine’s Day, 1975, I was fired from my job. I was told I falsified my time card. I disputed it, but it didn’t matter. I found out later that my newly hired boss learned that I had applied for his position, and he told the other guys that I had to go. At least he didn’t try to screw with my unemployment. It was in the middle of a recession, and there were very few jobs available.

I found a job in August that started in early September, but it was in a city 140 miles away. Carla looked over the offer, and said, “Go for it, they are offering a very good salary, tools, and a company car. It isn’t like I couldn’t find a job in the town, but for a while I will just support you in your job.”

Gotta love a supporting and loving wife.

Then I pulled a bonehead move. I took Carla on a week’s vacation to Washington D.C. August is not the time to be on the mall. Carla was loving the sights and was especially impressed when I showed her the Fort Myers Va. post where I served. I also showed her the changing of the Guard at the tomb of the unknown. To me it was moving, but the rows and rows or white gravestones showed that freedom was not free. Unfortunately, the heat bothered Carla, and we never made it through a full day.

One interesting thing happened when we were in line to go to the top of the Washington monument. We had been in line for about 30 minutes and were at the head of the next group to get in the elevators when the Secret Service closed it down and brought in bomb dogs. About twenty minutes later we got to go in.

The tour of the White House was nice and the Smithsonian was fabulous. We drove home tired and sunburned.

The next hurdle came in early October when the company sent me to Erie Pa. for a six week training class. It did not matter that I was already a certified equipment tech. To be fair, I did learn a great deal, mostly about how the company works.

Then on Veterans Day weekend, Carla came by a Canadian Pacific Railways train to meet me in Niagara Falls Canada. We had wonderful mini honeymoon.

When school was over, we moved into a house that Carla fell in love with. It was small but suited our needs. About six weeks after moving in, Carla told me she ran out of birth control pills and wanted to start a family.

By February it was confirmed the Carla was pregnant. I was working hard at converting the small bedroom (picture a large closet) into a nursery and working at the same time. I did not know if we were having a girl or a boy, but Carla did not like pink, so the nursery got a coat of pale blue paint.

For the first two or three months, Carla lost her appetite and was constantly nauseous. She lost almost 15 pounds and was fairly miserable. About the time the doctor decided she needed to go on bed rest, the symptoms went away. She started eating a normal diet and gained all of the lost weight and gained the normal baby weight.

I went back to college at night to try and get a business degree.

Our son Eric Allen was born in late September of 1976. He was a fairly good kid. He slept through the night after about four weeks and was well behaved.

He was just two, when in October, I got an offer to do the same work for a company that had an open territory in our home town. Before I could take the job, I had to give notice. I had to drive to the office and when I did, my boss told me I was done that day. I called Carla and she came and got me. So much for being fair and doing the right thing. Our house sold quickly, and we moved in three weeks.

We rented a townhouse and then the blizzard of 1978 struck. It started Thursday morning, and by the time I got home, the whole town had shut down. Friday morning, my station wagon was completely buried beneath a snowdrift. We couldn’t have gotten out other than to shovel until the following Monday.