Tag Archives: dating in Gillette Wyoming

Western North Dakota Romance Novel, Chapters 37 & 38

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Chapter 37

After Tracy and Cheryl had been dancing to several slow country songs at the Boot Hill Nightclub, and Cheryl had learned that she could trust Tracy to lead her, some quicker country songs came on, the Bellamy Brothers…

“Redneck girl likes to cruise in daddy’s pickup truck,
And a redneck girl plays her heart when she’s down on her luck,
Living for Friday afternoon,
She’s gonna show one ol’ boy that weekend moon.

 And I pray that someday I will find me a redneck girl
A redneck girl likes to stay out all night long
She makes sweet rock and roll while she listens to the country songs
She’s waiting for that moment of surrender
her hands are callused but her heart is tender

And i pray that someday I will find me a redneck girl
Gimme a, gimme a, gimme a redneck girl
Gimme a, gimme a, gimme a redneck girl”

This song has a quicker hoppy rhythm, and funny romantic lyrics.  Cheryl and Tracy were having a good time, and so were the other couples.

Over at the bar, there were some older rancher and farmer men.  One of them said, “Do you know who that is?” to a man whose family ran the stock yards for many years.  He answered, “Yes, I do.  That boy is the son of those folks who own TnT Oilfield Service up by Belfield.”  Several older men at the bar said, “Oh”, all at once.  This was O.K. with them, they did not mind that somebody whose family was from Belfield had come down to Gillette to have a good time.  The fact that the man who ran the stock yards knew who he was, meant that he was somebody.  The bartender overheard all of this, and made a mental note of it.  It was important to know who the wealthy land owner people were out west, they had a lot of control over towns and businesses.

After one more song, Tracy and Cheryl went and sat down at their table.  More people had arrived at the nighclub, and it was more crowded, and noisier.  It was almost too noisy to have a conversation.  Tracy and Cheryl talked just a little, and Cheryl excused herself to the bathroom.

As Cheryl walked to the bathroom and past the people sitting at the bar, she caught everyone’s  attention.  She stood out because of her attractiveness, and her sophistication.  The older farmer and rancher men at the bar were very impressed with Cheryl’s appearance, but they did not leer at her.  Unfortunately, Cheryl also caught the attention of two white trash men at the bar.

The two white trash men at the bar were from Florida.  It is pretty bad when someone is so low skilled, so unreliable, so untrustworthy, so worthless, that they can not get a job anywhere in Florida with a population of 20 million people, and they have to drive all the way to the oil boom in Gillette or North Dakota to get a job.  These two white trash, for most of their lives, had been kicked out of school, apartments, trailer parks, bars, and nightclubs.  They had nothing, and nothing to lose.

These two white trash men turned their attention to Cheryl.  When Cheryl came back from the bathroom and had to walk past the bar, one of these men called out to her, “Hey, how’s it going?”, like they knew her.  Cheryl looked at them and kept going back to her table.  The old farmer and rancher men at the bar did not like this, nor did the bartender, but none of them said anything to the two white trash men.  The two white trash men got the wrong impression that they could do what they wanted.

Chapter 38

The two white trash men watched Cheryl walk back to her table and sit down with some 20 year old guy who was well dressed.  They looked over the guy that she was with, sizing him up.  He was wearing a white long sleeve dress shirt, they figured he must be some business person or sales person.

Tracy got Cheryl to come dance with him some more.  The happy Zac Brown Band song was playing…

“You know I like my chicken fried
Cold beer on a Friday night
A pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio up
Well I was raised up beneath the shade of a Georgia pine
And that’s home you know
Sweet tea pecan pie and homemade wine
Where the peaches grow
And my house it’s not much to talk about
But it’s filled with love that’s grown in southern ground
And a little bit of chicken fried”

Tracy and Cheryl were having a good time.  This was infuriating to the two white trash men at the bar as they watched the two of them.  They had not been able to pick up any women in a long, long time.  They wanted Cheryl very badly, and they also wanted to beat the fuck out of Tracy.

Right as the song was ending, one of them slammed his beer down on the bar angrily, and headed out on to the dance floor.  The bartender looked up, the old farmer and rancher men took notice of the angry white trash man heading out onto the dance floor straight for Tracy and Cheryl.  One of the old farmers said, “Uh, oh, this ain’t good.”

The white trash man confronted Tracy and Cheryl, “Hey, I’d like a dance. Not with you, with her.  Come on now.”  Cheryl was taken aback and looked shocked.  Tracy said, “No, I don’t think so.”  The white trash man said, “So what you going to do about it punk!”

The white trash man didn’t know it, but he had hit the jackpot as far as fucking with someone in a bar.  Tracy had hated stupid ignorant construction laborers since he was very young.  Tracy’s father had had to have a talk with him about not getting into fights with the employee workers when he was about 12 years old and working with his father and brothers on construction projects.  Since Tracy was about fourteen working in his family’s oilfield service business, he had had to deal with white trash workers.  For the past two years managing the company shop and yard, he had to deal with white trash oil field workers every day.  Tracy hated oil field white trash, especially white trash from the South.

Now, at this moment, a white trash worker from the South was accosting him and his girlfriend, and ruining his date that he had to drive four hours to get to.  Tracy did not hesitate for a second to step forward and smash the white trash in the jaw as hard as he could, the second right hand to the white trash man’s cheek bone was even harder as he had fallen down a little lower and backwards onto a table.  As far as everybody witnessing this was concerned, it was not a matter of whether the white trash man was getting up, it was a matter of whether he was dead or not.  A bystander farmer out on the dance floor quickly checked to see if the man on the ground tangled up in the chairs was dead, and he quickly announced, “I don’t think he’s dead!”  And everybody was relieved temporarily.

Cheryl was in shock.  Tracy asked her if she was O.K., and he said to her come on let’s get your coat, and get out of here.  None of the nightclub staff or the patrons had any hard feelings against Tracy or Cheryl, or any sympathy for the two white trash men.  No one stopped Tracy or Cheryl as they left the nightclub.  A few of the other husband and wife couples began gathering their things to leave too, it was not that they were mad, it was just time to go now, and they didn’t want to be around any police or paramedics.  These people leaving all at once would just help the staff and the remaining patrons to say, that they did not know who it was who hit this guy, and that everybody around what happened had all left.

Out in the parking lot, Cheryl said to Tracy, “I have got to go.  I’ll be O.K., I got a hotel room in town, I want to be alone now.  You need to go now, you need to leave right away.  I will call you later.  Goodbye.”  Cheryl got in her Subaru and left quickly.  Tracy got in his Dodge truck and left quickly.

The white trash man took about fifteen minutes to get re-oriented enough to walk out with his friend.  The nightclub staff did not show any sympathy or any feeling of responsibility for what had happened, and did not say a word to him.  He did not go to the hospital this night, because he did not know that his jaw was broken and that his cheek bone was broken.

Western North Dakota Romance Novel, Chapters 35 & 36

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Chapter 35

Tracy thought that Cheryl was so sophisticated, so elegant, he had never seen a woman wear a Shetland blazer, or a Cashmere turtleneck.  The waitress asked Cheryl what she would like to drink, and Cheryl said ice tea, unsweatened.  This was a relief to Tracy, it saved him from having to order wine and being asked for his ID.

Cheryl asked Tracy what he had been doing at work, he replied “Oh, mostly working in the office, getting information to the work crews in the morning, then ordering parts, equipment, and material.  Receiving equipment and material when it comes in.” “You don’t work on oil rigs?” she asked.  “No, I used to deliver equipment and material to the oil rigs though.” answered Tracy.

Tracy explained that his father Tom Jr., and his grandfather Tom Sr., had done oil field service work in Belfield during the oil boom from 1978 to 1983.  Back then, TnT Oilfield Service did some work for most of the drilling companies and most of the oil companies.  Then when the oil boom went away in 1983, there was very little work in Belfield.  His father and grandfather had to do all different kinds of work to make a living, but they still owned a lot of equipment.  They hauled hay, they hauled machinery, they dug basements, they dug septic systems, they demolished buildings, they built barns, they did welding, and they still did a small amount of work in the oil field.  When the oil boom came back in 2006, TnT was already being used by the oil companies, and TnT was remembered by the drilling companies, so they got very busy right away.

Part of why Cheryl was asking Tracy about work, was to listen to him speak.  She was liking him, but in listening to him speak, he did seem kind of youthful for a 30 year old.  She wasn’t about to do or say anything to disrupt this date though, not yet.  Tracy realized that he had been talking about himself, and that he hadn’t asked about her.

He asked Cheryl about her work.  Cheryl replied that she worked at Warren Air Force Base, and that she did administrative work.  Tracy did not want to inquire further about Cheryl’s work, because he did not want to hear about purchase orders, invoices, time sheets, and work orders, that’s all the women in the TnT office talked about all day, every day.  Luckily, they were both interrupted by the delivery of their dinner salads.

Tracy asked Cheryl if she had any hobbies. Cheryl replied that when she was young she used to ride horses.  She used to snow ski.  She used to play tennis.  She sometimes goes shooting.  Tracy said, “Shooting?”  Cheryl said, “Yes, target shooting.”  She continued, saying that she goes to the gym in the morning several times a week, and that she goes hiking in the summer.

Cheryl asked, “How about you?”  This is what Tracy wanted to talk about.  He said that he played piano, guitar, and mandolin.  Every member of his family could play an instrument.  He learned from his father, grandfather, and brothers.  He could read music, he sometimes wrote music.  He said that he would have liked to have had more music lessons and more time to spend on music, but his father had him doing farm chores instead.

Cheryl asked Tracy if he was in a band.  This was always irritating to Tracy when someone asked him this, he thought of most bands as being a joke in the simplicity of their music and lyrics.  When he was talking about composing music, he meant composing music for an orchestra.  He knew that Cheryl was likely not going to understand what he was talking about, no one ever did.  So there was certainly no point in trying to talk to Cheryl about musicals at this time.

Soon their steaks arrived.  It was unlikely that Tracy and Cheryl were going to have an immediate connection, because they were both rather anit-social people in many respects.  Cheryl was grateful that Tracy was not trying to get her drunk, and that he was not making any sexual innuendos in any way.  Tracy was pleased that Cheryl was not nearly as irritating as most women.  Both of them feeling not irritated by the other, they were at ease with each other.

Chapter 36

After some more conversation as they finished their dinner, Tracy asked Cheryl if she would like to go dancing after dinner at the Boot Hill Nightclub.  Cheryl said that she did.

All the servers and patrons at the Prime Rib Restaurant and Wine Cellar had been polite, pleasant, and cordial to Tracy and Cheryl.  They had had a nice dinner.  Tracy told Cheryl where the Boot Hill Nightclub was located, what it looked like, but to go ahead and follow him over there.  Tracy made sure that Cheryl got to her Subaru and got it started, before he went and got in his truck.

When they arrived at the Boot Hill Nightclub, Tracy walked over to Cheryl’s car to get her, and they walked in together.  Because Tracy was nicely dressed, which made him look like he was at least 25 years old, and he was accompanying a very attractive woman who was also very nicely dressed, there was no request for ID from either of them when they entered the nightclub.  If Tracy had been asked for his ID, he would have explained that it was in his work truck in Belfield, and if they would not have let him in, they would have gone some place else.  However, Tracy wasn’t going to push his luck, he would just order Coke for himself to drink.

Tracy and Cheryl went and sat at a table not far from the dance floor.  A waitress came and asked Cheryl what she would like, and she said a Coke, Tracy said a Coke, and the waitress went away from them thinking that they were both weird.

It was about 8:00 p.m. and not completely crowded yet in the nightclub.  There were four other husband & wife, boyfriend & girlfriend couples already there when Tracy and Cheryl arrived.  There were a lot of waitresses, bartenders, and bar backs on duty in preparation for the nightclub getting very busy and crowded after 9:00 p.m.  All of the waitresses and the female bartenders got a good look at Tracy and Cheryl.  They thought that Tracy was very handsome, and that Cheryl was very lucky.

The waitress and bartender women could tell that Cheryl was much older than Tracy.  This often happened in Gillette.  In Gillette, Wyoming, there was a smaller oil boom going on than in Belfield, Dickinson, Watford City, Williston, and Minot, but there was also a shortage of women in Gillette, due to so many male workers moving there.  The ratio of men to women in Gillette was probably 2:1.  Attractive women who were older could date who ever they wanted because they were probably being courted by ten men.  Conversely, young men, if they wanted a date, would have to consider women between the ages of 17 to 50 years old.

That night at the Boot Hill Nightclub, they were having a country & western band, but when the band wasn’t playing, there was good dance music on.  Right after the waitress left Tracy and Cheryl, the Brooks & Dunn song “Neon Moon” came on.  Tracy took Cheryl by the hand to the dance floor ten feet away, and pulled her to him, but not too close.  Cheryl wanted to go with Tracy, but she was so unused to someone pulling her anywhere, that she was stiff and tense.  “Neon Moon” is a nice, mellow, slow song, that is easy to dance to…

“When the sun goes down
On my side of town
That lonesome feeling
Comes to my door
The whole world turns blue

There’s a rundown bar
Cross the railroad tracks
I’ve got a table for two
Way in the back
Where I sit alone
And think of losing you”

At first, it was foreign to Cheryl, someone holding her, and moving her around.  Cheryl could dance, but it had been a long time since she had danced with anyone.  Because Tracy was much bigger, taller, and stronger than Cheryl, it was unnoticeable that Cheryl was not completely yielding, Tracy moved her where he wanted her without any difficulty.  Cheryl quickly realized that it was O.K. to let Tracy move her around, he wasn’t clumsy, he could dance well, and he had a very good sense of rhythm.

It is fun to watch people sometimes.  Though the waitresses, bartenders, and the other couples had other things to do, they each watched Tracy and Cheryl dance.  The tall, handsome, confident, expressionless young man, led this nice looking hesitant woman around the dance floor until she was smiling and happy.

Western North Dakota Romance Novel, Chapters 33 & 34

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Chapter 33

Cheryl had left Cheyenne, Wyoming early in the afternoon on Saturday so that she would arrive in Gillette, Wyoming at approximately 3:30 p.m.  She wanted to check into the Arbuckle Lodge in Gillette, and then go and see the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar before her date with Tracy.  She wanted to plan ahead the safest place to park her vehicle, and she wanted to see where the restaurant exits were in case she needed to escape from her date.

Cheryl had stopped at Taco Bell on the way to Gillette to get a drink and a couple of burritos.  She did not want to be hungry at dinner.  She wanted to focus on Tracy, and not be distracted by food and being hungry.  Also, she did not want to appear to be a hungry pig on her dinner date.

She checked into the Arbuckle Lodge at 3:30 p.m., everything was fine there.  Then she drove over to the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar, just to quickly peak inside.  It was very Wyoming-ish inside, not very cosmopolitan.  Cheryl decided that she would be more comfortable wearing pants to dinner instead of a dress.

Cheryl went back to the hotel.  It was 4:15 p.m.  She might have liked to call one of her friends to let them know how things were going, if she had any friends, but she didn’t.  That is one of the reasons why Cheryl felt that she had to be careful all the time. If something happened to her, no one would know.  If something ever happened to her, the only people who would notice her missing, would be the people at her job, who might try to call her, but none of them knew what was going on in her life.  They wouldn’t know what to think.

Cheryl had learned a long time ago, not to trust other women.  Cheryl was intelligent and attractive, and it seemed to her that other women would sometimes want to be friends with her, but these friendships would never work out.  She would become more and more annoyed by the foolishness of these women friends, and at the same time these women friends would be getting more and more annoyed with Cheryl for being so analytical and disciplined.  Eventually, Cheryl could detect that most of the women that had wanted to be friends with her, actually came to dislike her, and this would come out in sarcastic comments, thinly veiled insults and put downs, undermining, sabotage, and betraying confidences.  With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Cheryl also learned not to trust men her own age.  They typically did not know very much, about anything, though they thought that they did.  Men her own age would put on an act around her, either trying to appear intelligent and considerate, or trying to appear tough and confident.  In just a short while, she would always end up finding out that these men her own age were self-centered, insecure, weak, needy, and immature.

Cheryl felt that her mental and emotional equivalent in a male was always someone that was ten to fifteen years older than her.  The only good relationships that she had, were her work relationships with men that were ten to fifteen years older than her, some of them were married men.  They were dependable.  They were always where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be, doing what they were supposed to be doing.  They did their work competently, and they appreciated her work.  They did not make any passes at her, they did not make any lewd comments, they did not pry into her personal life.  They were steady in their temperament.  They did not do anything destructive.  They were providers for their wives and children, they were not selfish.

The last thing in the world that Cheryl would have ever done, considering that she was always so careful, and only ever got along with men that were ten to fifteen years older than her, was go on a date with someone sixteen years younger than herself.

Chapter 34

Tracy had an O.K. drive from Belfield, North Dakota down to Gillette, Wyoming, though it took him a little over four hours.  He used that time to think about everything that he was not supposed to do.  He needed to not do anything that would reveal he was only 20 years old, and that he was not Jewish.  Even though he thought that Cheryl was attractive, that is why he picked her, and that is why he was willing to drive for four hours to meet her, having sex with her was not his goal.  Having sex with her would probably even make it more difficult to get what he wanted.  He wanted to know what Jewish people were like, how they behaved, what they talked about, what things did they do, how did they see things.

As soon as this oil boom was over, and his father would let him leave Belfield, he wanted to move to New York City.  He wanted to enroll in a college and study music, theater, dance, art, and literature.  He wanted to be a composer.  He  wanted to write musicals.  All of the best composers and playwrights were Jewish.  He didn’t know any Jews.  If he could get to know Cheryl, this would help him a great deal he thought.

Tracy arrived in Gillette about half an hour before his dinner date with Cheryl.  He stopped at a convenience store to get a Coke and wait until it was closer to 6:30 p.m.  He knew right where the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar was.  He was not about to get there early, go to wait at the bar, and because he would be alone at that point, they would ask him for his ID, which he couldn’t show them because he was only 20.

Tracy arrived at the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar right at 6:30 p.m.  Being young and 6′-1″, Tracy walked quickly, he was in the front door and over to the bar where Cheryl was sitting before any nosy hostess got in his way, “Hello Cheryl, I’m Tracy”, he said, as he put out his hand to Cheryl.  There was not any chance for awkwardness, he had moved so fast and been so direct.  Cheryl put her hand in his without any hesitation.  Tracy was very handsome, and nicely dressed.  Cheryl was adorable looking.

The hostess was there with two menus, “Would you like to be seated now?  Right this way.”  Having some sense about these two, the hostess offered to seat them in a booth, where they would have more privacy, which was fine with Tracy and Cheryl.  The hostess mentioned to the waitress, that this appeared to be a first date, and they might not want to be rushed.

It was good luck for Tracy and Cheryl, that their waitress was not an idiot, she did not interrupt them every two minutes to disrupt their conversation.  Dinner was the last and least important thing on their minds.

As Tracy and Cheryl sat across the table from each other, Cheryl thought to herself that it had been a very long time since she had seen a man as handsome as Tracy, and so nicely dressed.  Tracy was thinking to himself, that never in his life before had he seen a woman like this, she was so attractive, healthy, well groomed, professional, and sophisticated.  He began to feel like an imposter, that he was not worthy of her, he was just a kid.

Western North Dakota Romance Novel, Chapters 31 & 32

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Chapter 31

Tracy and Cheryl messaged each other back and forth for a couple of days.  The only time that Tracy sent a message or replied to a message was in the evening after he got home from work.  Cheryl, would send and reply to messages both before and after work, though she knew that Tracy would not get back to her until that evening.

Tracy got in the habit of not ever writing anything that would in any way reveal that he was only 20 years old, not 30 years old, that he lived at his parents’ house, and that he was not Jewish.  Every day, Tracy researched and studied Jewish beliefs, figures of speech, culture, and religious practices.  He went over and over these things that he learned in his mind.  It came to the point, that from time to time, he began using Jewish figures of speech at work, to the administrators, his sister, and to the crew workers.

Soon, it came time where Cheryl wanted to exchange telephone numbers and talk on the telephone.  Tracy explained that he would only be able to talk after he got home from work.  In order to not be overheard by his brothers or sisters, or worse, have them yell at him in his room while he was on the telephone with Cheryl, Tracy had to go out and get in his truck to talk on the phone with Cheryl.

When Cheryl thought that she could hear a truck engine running in the background, she asked Tracy where he was, she thought that he was at home.  Tracy answered that he was home, that he lived on a farm, he had to go check on the horses and cattle, that he preferred to sit out in his truck and watch the animals, watch the sun set.  Cheryl thought that this sounded very romantic, that Tracy was very responsible to get home from working all day, and then go look after the farm and the animals.  She also thought that he must be very successful and have money, to be both the operations manager of a company, and also own and operate a farm.

Cheryl asked more about the farm.  Tracy said that it was his grandparents’ farm.  Cheryl began to ask in a round about way if it was all his.  Tracy replied no, that other family members had a stake in it.  Cheryl asked how big was the farm.  Tracy answered that it was four sections.  A section of land is one mile by one mile, one section is 7oo acres.

Tracy did not mind answering Cheryl’s questions.  He understood that women want to know what you have, they are curious, they want to know.  But in the questions that they ask, you can tell a lot about them.  They ask about what they care about, what they don’t care about, they don’t ask about.  So Cheryl could ask him as many questions as she wanted, for every question that she asked, it answered one or more questions that Tracy had about her.

After the small talk and chit chat, Tracy asked Cheryl if she would like to go out to dinner with him on Saturday in Gillette, Wyoming at the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar.  Cheryl said, yes, she did.

Chapter 32

Tracy had to leave Belfield at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in order to make it to Gillette, Wyoming for his dinner date with Cheryl at 6:30 p.m.  Tracy had been to Gillette, Wyoming with his father many times during his childhood to pick up construction equipment, to drop off construction equipment, to buy a horse from time to time.  When Tracy became a teenager, and got his driver’s license, that was just when the oil boom was getting started.  Tracy’s father began sending him on his own, down to Gillette with a Dodge 3500 dually and a long gooseneck trailer to pick up oil field equipment.

The dinner date was at the Prime Rib Restaurant & Wine Cellar on Douglas Highway.  If he could get Cheryl to go, he wanted to take her dancing after dinner at the Boot Hill Nightclub.  Tracy was not nervous or anxious, this was easier than when he was a young teenager driving a big truck and big trailer by himself to go pick up equipment in Gillette.

Tracy had gone through the car wash with his silver Dodge diesel 2500 mega cab 4×4, and he had made sure that everything that didn’t need to be in the truck was taken out, and that it was clean inside.  Tracy was wearing his new black dress shoes, new dark blue Carhart jeans, black dress belt, long sleeve white dress shirt, his new Pierre Cardin dark grey wool coat, and no hat.  He looked very handsome, and he could easily pass as being 25 years old, but he didn’t quite look like he was 30.

Cheryl was more nervous than Tracy was.  She had only been to Gillette, Wyoming once or twice.  Cheryl had called the Arbuckle Lodge on Thursday to make reservations for a hotel room on Saturday, she was not going to try to drive back to Cheyenne, Wyoming on Saturday night.  But she was sure not going to tell Tracy that she had a hotel room reserved in Gillette, she did not want him coming back to her hotel room.  That is not how she wanted this date to go.  She was looking for a serious relationship, and hopefully marriage.

Once Cheryl knew that she was going to get a hotel room, she thought that she would like to drive to Gillette, and get there at about 3:00 p.m. to check into her hotel room.  She would then go and see where the restaurant was, and look inside.  Then go back to the hotel, and take a shower and get dressed.   She would bring a couple of different outfits, and decide what to wear when she arrived in Gillette, depending on how cold it was that evening.

Cheryl had spent some of her time looking forward to this date, buying some new clothes, getting her hair done, buying some new cosmetics.  She even bought some new lingerie.  Just in case she thought, she might as well she thought.  Cheryl took her mint green color Subaru wagon to get washed and vacuumed at the car wash.

Cheryl had spent some of her time worrying about this date.  At times she was very angry about this date, was this guy going to show up and be some horny 20 year old?  Some times she was fearful about this date, was this guy Tracy some kind of serial killer?  Cheryl made sure to bring her.38 caliber Bersa semi-auto pistol that she usually carried in her purse.  And she wanted to check out the restaurant before the date to make sure she could park where she could be seen,  and she wanted to see if she would be able to excuse herself to the bathroom, and leave through a side door in case Tracy was very creepy in person.