With a Girl from Column A...

Legend and Me
Copyright Ken Harris, 2008


Introduction


This book is about me and my horse, Legend. Legend was originally my wife Joanne’s horse. Joanne and I have been married over half a century now, so I expect she’ll be in the book too. And there will be some other horses in the book, too. Sam, Beanblossom, and – Sheba. Especially Sheba.

I first met Joanne in the fall of 1954 at the University of California at Riverside. She had brought her two horses, Sheba and Legend, to school with her. Doesn’t everyone? Well, Joanne would, because horses had been her deep and abiding interest for most of her life.


With a Girl from Column A, You Get Two Horses from Column B


I met my wife, Joanne, in September, 1954 at the University of California, Riverside, where the Dean of Women Students, Loda Mae Davis, accused her of flunking German because she had brought her two horses, Sheba and Legend, to school with her. Loda Mae thought Sheba and Legend were polo ponies.

Joanne had come to visit two of her friends, Joanna Spaulding and Mary Kooiman, straight from cleaning up after her horses. She was wearing something called “California pants” rather than jeans and, while not actually festooned with straw and hay, displayed a few traces about her person. She thought she looked stylish. I thought she looked like a hayseed.

I was already at her friends’ house because they were my friends, too, even though Joanne and I had never met. I had imbibed a little too much, as I often did in those days. I hadn’t drunk enough to impair my mental faculties, but with a 21-year-old male it’s difficult to tell. I thought I looked fascinating and sophisticated, but she thought I looked like a dumb, boring guy who drank too much.

To make matters worse, I was at Joanna’s and Mary’s apartment in the first place to look over a rough draft of an essay Joanne had written for an English class. The girls had agreed to type the paper but it was a mess, replete with fragmentaried sentences, modified danglers and disagreeable verbs. I have always considered myself something of a writer and, as the evening progressed, I agreed to work with Joanne, beginning with the mysteries of the Thesis Statement, a sure-fire formula for writing those boring term papers that college professors seem to love.

Joanne and I proceeded socially in a fairly organized manner. We went to a few ball games together. We didn’t dance, so we had that in common. Then one day I invited Joanne’s roommate, Marina Steinberger, to the beach. Joanne went along as a chaperone. While at the beach, Joanne threw me over her hip and dumped me on the sand. I returned the favor and we spent the rest of the afternoon dragging each other through the sand while Marina pretended she didn’t know either one of us.

After the beach episode, I began to take things more seriously and it occurred to me that if I was going to really interest this girl I would have to grow a mane and tail. Or at least learn to ride a horse. And so Sheba (The Horse With a History) and Legend (The Horse With a Problem) entered my life.