Girls

I have deliberately "skirted" around the subject of girls because I did not know exactly how to tackle the subject. It has become clear to me that this most important part of my life should no longer remain out of this presentation. Half the people in the world are women. Everyone has or has had a mother. Most men have or have had wives. Every normal man had a sweetheart or two or three. Girls and women are just too important to ignore even in a paper such as this so I may as well dive into the subject.

During the first few years of my life I knew that girls were there but I did not know why and paid very little attention to them. Gradually I became aware that girls were different from boys and were rather pleasant to be around. Finally I discovered that all girls were not the same. Some were more comfortable to be around than others. Then I became really selective. I decided there was one who stood head and shoulders above all the others. This decision came when we drew names for our school Christmas Party. I just knew I would draw the name of "Thelma Brewer" and I did. Thelma was a brunette and her black hair, dark eyes and bright smile were just designed to rivet the attention of a boy. She got a nice lace-bordered handkerchief for Christmas and politely thanked an admirer who was at least four years younger than she.

I am not sure what happened to that romance but it did not last long. Other attachments came along to heal the wounds of the previous ones and there was always someone there to fill a need for companionship that could not be filled in any other way. Now I must hasten to say that these relationships were rather distant and unspoken. Even though there was no "oral agreement" there was a shared understanding that we were partners of some sort until one of us broke the link. These associations were handy during social activities and at school. Our social activities consisted mainly of Saturday night parties at someone's house where we played all kinds of games. Occasionally we made candy or even had a box supper. Of course there was no radio and if we played games that required music we furnished that by singing. Television had not been invented yet. We usually attended church on Sunday morning and in the spring and summer the boys played base ball in the afternoon.

The Southern Baptist Church, at that time, considered dancing to be a sin and it was not condoned. Floyd and I did not accept this idea and we furnished the music for most of the Saturday night dances. He played the fiddle and I played the guitar. Our "girls" either chose not to dance or were prohibited from doing so by their parents. Our parents left the dance decision to us and we sort of had the best of both worlds. The Baptist minister did not like us to play baseball on Sunday. We offered to compromise by saying if he would play ball with us in the afternoon we would attend Church that night. When he refused, we came to the conclusion that he was unreasonable and we stopped trying to work with him.

When I was away from home attending high school, I got hit by lightening - girl lightening that is. This one really shook me up. I was hopelessly in love and just did not know what to do about it.

This again was a "distant" relationship. One does not tell the object of his affections about his great love for her. After all, she might just tell him to "Get Lost!" so why not enjoy worshipping from a distance and not take a chance on being rebuffed. That one failed when the high school closed in 1930 and I went to Flagstaff in 1931.

I sort of played the field for the next several years but my interest was in finding a girl who would understand the family I came from and who could appreciate the kind of life we had led. When I returned to college in the Spring of 1935 after being away for a year, I struck pay dirt. We were on a Saturday hike and I saw this neat little freshman girl walking in the group. Somehow we managed to walk together and share information about home towns, high schools and families. Other contacts followed and gradually there was an understanding between us and I began to seriously look at her as a possible wife. I tried to find something that would not work in our relationship but it was just not there. Later I took her to my home and went to her home. We parted company a couple of times and were miserable so we came back together. Finally in August of 1938, we were married. I had stopped long ago looking for those things that would prevent a favorable marriage. Oh we have had our ups and downs in our relationship but most of them involved frustration over some minor occurrence and none have come close to threatening our marriage. After fifty-six years we have seen and done about everything possible and as far as I am concerned I am ready to start on the second fifty six.