THE GATHERING BEGINS, PART III.DECLARATIONS

At the time he came home---I’m sure he probably came home that Saturday, but
I didn’t see him until Sunday.   I didn’t know the contents of the letter yet, but we saw each other every day that week---he probably had to hitch a ride into town, and maybe spent the night some at Bert’s.   We saw each other every night because I was working in the daytime.    And I was exhausted and about to come unglued.   Monday was the annual “M” night for all the Baptist churches in the county and we went to that, with Lois and her date, and rode in the back seat of her boyfriend’s car. 

 

We changed to my Dad’s car for some reason---he was working night shift at the shipyard, and he had parked it downtown to catch his ride to Mobile.  We just went and got it.   Apparently my sister’s date was not watching the road closely as we rode along, because there were several cows on the roadway and he hit one.   First thing we saw from the back seat was hooves up in the air.

 

Our first thought was what were we going to tell Dad, because we did not have permission to use his car.  (my question to Tawa---What DID you tell him and what did he SAY?)

 

“At that time in my life, I wasn’t caring WHAT he said!!”   (twinkly-eyed laugh).

 

My sister and I were scheduled to do a song that night, and we were late getting there.  But by this time I was not in any singing condition, and I asked the director to cancel us out, and the song was “Make Me a Blessing.”   (Tawa and I  just broke into song, finishing up with a very harmonious “. . . to SOMMMMME-ONNNE to-day!”)  

 

That was on Monday night; we had stopped by his parents’ home and they were on the porch and he introduced me to them.  I did not go into the house.   Tuesday night, we went somewhere with my sister and her date.    Wednesday night we went somewhere together, and we planned that he was going to meet me when I got off work next day at noon---businesses in town all closed at noon on Thursdays.  

The plans were to go to his sister’s there on Thursday, because he had had no time to visit with them.   GrandDaddy, Pammaw, Alice and JoeBob were going to be at her house, and that gave us reason to join the family.   He met me at noon and we went directly to Bert’s house.   She was not there; she was at work, and Pammaw was not physically able to cook for the crowd.    So there was a houseful of people---four children, Uncle Von, all the rest of us, and no noon dinner.   So I solved the problem---I volunteered to go into Bert’s kitchen and cook dinner for them.  Alice was at home doing Gran’s laundry, because he wore his uniform every day.

 

Uncle Von showed me where certain things were, for example, jars of home-canned green beans and so forth.   I’d ask him for this and that, and he’d go show me where it was.  Then he went back and joined the family in the living room.  Dad stayed right there by me; I don’t know if he helped, or if it was just for moral support.  Joe just would not leave the kitchen; he kept hanging around, just to see what was going on.  

 

I made some canned green beans and a pan of cornbread and stewed some potatoes and we all ate.   Dad and I cleaned the kitchen and washed the dishes.  My house was at the end of the street and no one was at home.  Mom was up the hill at the closed dormitory; our Fellowship had been meeting on our front porch, and she had gotten permission to use the building for the Homecoming the following Sunday.   My two youngest brothers were with her, while she
cleaned up the building, and the others were in school.    She had been working
at this chore for several days; Dad was at the shipyard in Mobile.   They had it understood that he would come there and they would work til dark before going home. 

 

We walked down to my house; the weather was fairly warm for the time of year.  We sat out in the yard in a swing under a cherry tree.   We sang and we talked about what kind of home we wanted, where each thing would be---so I went in and got a tablet and a pencil, and we drew our floor plan.    During that time,
he talked about Servicemen would marry the girl back home and would be killed in action, and that it wasn’t fair for this to happen, for the wife to be left without a husband, yet she’d been married.


Somewhere he made the statement, after he had explained all that, that he
would talk about maybe us getting married, but he just didn’t think it was
right, not knowing if he was coming back.  So I made the statement to him,

“So, I’m asking YOU to marry ME.”

 

If I was the subject affected by the risk, then I’d take my own risk, and I asked him to marry me.  And he said that he would not marry me before he asked my parents.