FIRST COMES LOVE...

I’m not sure exactly when I fell in love with the girl that would become my wife.  We both have memories of “liking” each other all the way back to the 4^th grade.  I remember her as a sort of quiet girl with a sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks.  I just knew I wanted her to like me as much as I liked her. 

We passed notes to each other all through those grammar school years, although we were not in the same classroom after the 4^th grade.  But we managed to play outside together or talk to each other on the playground at recess from then on to high school where it became obvious to me that I was in love.  Both of us had the same friends.  Sollie + LaRose was written on the little notes,  and in high school, everybody wrote messages of our love in our annual year books.   I guess it was just accepted by everybody that we were a boyfriend and girlfriend pair. 

I would walk home from school with her and carry her books all the way home.  I was very shy around people I didn’t know and her parents weren’t too keen on her having a boyfriend so early and so young so I didn’t hang around her house when we got there.  The only time we ever got to see each other was at school until she was 14 when her parents finally allowed us to have a real date.  A couple of times before that, we went to the movies at night together with her Mother driving us there in their car.  Then we’d walk home alone in the cold nights. 

I started driving my Daddy’s car when I was about 15 and would drive up to New Street and circle the block, spinning wheels,  kicking up dust and being cool.  Round and around.  She didn’t come outside, but I knew she saw me.   I was a legal driver by the time she was allowed to date, so her Mother didn’t take us anymore.  That wasn’t my most favorite way to date my girl.

I guess it was probably our first real date when we went to the county fair together on a cold night in October.  We rode all the rides together, looked at the exhibits and I tried to win various things throwing balls or shooting play guns at a bull’s eye.  There was this particular side show called the Koo Koo Motel.  (Yes, that was the name) I remember it was dark inside and there was a maze of stuff that you had to go through to find your way out the other side.   Well, we went in together, holding hands and walked through the maze.  Somewhere about the middle, she leaned up against me and I wrapped my arms around her and drew her to me for our first kiss.  Good grief, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  I guess she did too since after that first one, our fate was sealed to be a couple in love, destined to be married one day.

Each school year we would get adjoining lockers so we could see each other between classes.  The Principle, Mr. Glenn, passed in the hall a couple of times when we were holding hands, and tell us we had to stop that.  We had two classes together.   Mrs. Bailey, our teacher for both classes was one of my favorites.   One of those was Speech and I remember us having a play which was a lot of fun to do.  We enjoyed “acting” together.    We would sit outside at lunch on the grass and hold hands and talk.  Mr. Glenn didn’t like that either.  He called "Rose" into his office and lectured her saying her parents wouldn’t like it.   And they wouldn’t have.  But working every night at the drive in didn’t give me much time to date so we had to talk when we could. 

 

Our dates consisted mostly of sitting in the car at the Dixie Drive In where I worked.    I would put on a reel, run out to the car, and well, you know, we’d talk.  Then sometimes, the reel would run out, the screen would go black, and the horns start blowing, and I’d jump out and run back in to put on another reel.  It is funny now, to think about those days and how we had so little time for real dating.    We were young and in love.  Through those high school years, there would be dates with other girls,  but the one I loved would always come out on top of the list.  It was meant to be. Everybody knew we would get married someday.   Christmas of our senior year, I went to the jewelry store where I had gained the trust of Mr. Stewart, and picked out what I thought was the prettiest wedding set in the store and asked her to marry me.  Somehow I mustered up the nerve to ask her Daddy if I could marry her.  He gave his blessings, she loved the ring, and  we set a date in August for our wedding.  The rest is history.

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes "Rose" with a baby carriage."  Written in an old Autograph Book in our box of memories.