Ruminations: Slippin' My Clutch ~ Part 2

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Slippin' My Clutch ~ Part 2

For many years, before I met and married Patrick, I was a single working mom. In the late nineties, I rented an apartment in an old house in Elkhart. The house had been turned into two apartments, one upstairs housing another single working mom and her little girl, and the one downstairs with me and my two kids.

Cats or dogs were not allowed, so we decided to get some fish. I got a big 25 gallon aquarium, water plants and trimmings, and a few common comet goldfish. Sure was an awfully big tank for a few little goldfish!

We (read 'I' ) became fish obsessed. Eventually, our big tank held not only the comets but also two redcap orandas, a pair of black moors, and a few fancy veiltails. Though I could not afford an expensive filter system at the time, this beautiful goldfish menagerie was well tended for several years.

Over time, these fish grew. When I first got them, I had no idea these fish could get so big! Prime example of not doing your research first! But grow they did and we ended up with a tankful of pretty good sized fish. In fact, they got so big, that if one just happened to die, I did not bother to replace it. I figured the survivors needed the space!

We kept the tank in the kitchen, not too far from the sink, at the end of the long kitchen counter. There was no room anywhere else in our rather small apartment, and keeping it near the sink made it easier when it was time to drain and clean the tank.

Like most single working moms, I often was beset with my share of the typical problems single moms seem to encounter. I'd been having some car problems, and couldn't really afford to get a new car as I didn't want to have to add vehicle payments to my monthly bill load.

Serendipitously, only a block or two from our house was a family-owned neighborhood repair shop which had a good reputation. I'd had some work done there before and knew they'd do a good job. Unfortunately, it turned out I needed a new engine. However, It took a few days to get the replacement engine in and my car fixed. We dealt with the inconvenience as well as we could and a few days later, Ron, the owner, called me to tell me the car was ready.

As it happens, he called just when I'd begun to siphon off the old water in the aquarium to be replaced with fresh water. I'd been just standing there daydreaming and watching the water slowly drain. I became so excited at the prospect of having my own wheels again, I called to my daughter to walk down to the nearby repair shop with me and we took off to pick up the car. I had to wait a short while till the bill was ready; I paid it and back home we went, engine purring like a cat. Yay! Back into the house we went and headed to the kitchen to get a snack.

Horror of horrors! In my excitement to pick up the car, I'd forgotten all about that fish tank! My poor fat fantails, moors and the rest were all flopping around on the gravel gasping for their lives! How could I have done such an awful, negligent thing?! Shocked, I turned on the tap, grabbed a pitcher and told my daughter to get another one and we began filling them and pouring water into the tank as fast as we could!

Soon the poor critters were revived and in deep enough water to swim while we continued to fill the tank to the top. I don't know how, but we didn't lose a single fish. I later got a filtering system when we could afford it, but for a decade afterward, I had bizarre dreams about weird fish tanks and neglected fish!