I like you – Do you like me?

I was a homely looking kid. Stringy, dishwater blond hair, fair skin with freckles, a crooked front tooth and pleasingly plump, as Bigmother used to say. I didn’t have a lot going for me but in third grade, I noticed a shy boy in the 4th grade whose brother was in my class. The brother was not bad, but kind of a clown in class. The shy boy was something else though. I was smitten! This shy boy in his overalls with long johns peeping out of the bottom of his trousers and a half smile turned up one side of his face was about the best-looking boy I had ever seen! He could have had any girl he wanted with his looks and shy demeanor. I watched him for a year of two.

As it turned out, Shy Boy with the long John’s was watching me too. We started passing notes in school. You know the kind. “I like you – do you like me?” Then it was LE + ST and on and on. All of sudden we were a couple. I felt soooo special! Here I was, this ugly, fat, tween with a boyfriend to die for! We were just entering eighth grade.

On a blazing hot Sunday afternoon in 1956, we jumped into a borrowed car with tin cans tied to the back bumper and dead fish under the hood and sped down Highway 80 toward Adrian trying to outrun all our friends whooping and hollering behind us. I was perspiring, not sweating, mind you, in my conservative beige sheath going away dress from Rosenberg’s, complete with pill box hat and veil, high heels, white gloves, purse, etc. You get the picture. This was mid 1950’s remember.

Now, our lives had just been sealed into perpetuity! We had been sweethearts for as long as we could remember, now we were husband and wife, and nothing could stop us. We were invincible! Atlanta bound! Yes! We did it! and so it was that we headed off on our two-day honeymoon to the Capitol of Georgia with $50!

Our very special first night was spent in Griffin! Georgia at the Peter Pan motel. No joke. Glamorous, wouldn’t you say? We drove into Atlanta the next day and went to the wonderful Fox theater and saw the stars in the ceiling and watched the movie Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe. It was way more beautiful than the Peter Pan motel. Then, being the good granddaughter that I was, we stopped by to see my Granny Elkins in East Point and then headed on to Jonesboro’s Wagon Wheel motel with pay television. We watched it until we ran out of quarters. We chowed down on hamburgers, peanuts, cokes and chips.

Alas, our two-day honeymoon was over, and we drove home on Tuesday with a total of $11 to last till next payday. Not too bad. Only problem was, we forgot to count on losing two pay days. Not to worry, we were so much in love, we’d figure something out. We returned the borrowed car after trying hopelessly to remove the stench of the dead fish. I think we can thank Jerry Rich, Richard Brown, Bo Bo Green and John Tapley for that mischievous prank.

‘);

Our first apartment was a tiny garage apartment behind Ada Walden’s house. We were so excited to get it. My best friend Kay Smith’s mother made us some sweet little pink cafe curtains and we had everything we needed after buying a sofa and chair from a local furniture store “on time.” Ta Da!!

We were in love, right? We could conquer the world of finance. We each made $25 a week.

Now when this girl grew up, birth control was definitely no everyday conversation around my house, wasn’t sold in gas stations and supermarkets and God forbid you mentioned the word sex or pregnant within a mile of Swainsboro High School. Are you beginning to get the picture?

Along about the first of October, I began to feel like I could throw up my toenails. It didn’t take long to figure out what the problem was, so I made an appointment with my local doctor, Dr. Brown. He showed no mercy on this 18-year-old when he examined me confirming that just as I expected, I was indeed pregnant and allowed as to how my pelvic joints could accommodate an elephant. He had such a way with words! God rest his soul.

Well, so much for having it all figured out. I was so nauseous I couldn’t work, believing I would throw up at any moment. Those steep stairs at our sweet little garage apartment presented a problem so we moved into another sweet little apartment cottage behind the Bradford’s home on North Main. It was $10 more a month in rent so we were taking one step forward and two backward so to speak. We still had no car but continued to borrow a family car and I spent my days sitting in my momma’s beauty shop listening to the local gossip. We hardly had two pennies to rub together and in the back part of my mind I’m thinking the words my daddy has said, “what will you do if…” He was only trying to convince us that we needed more time before marriage. As usual, he gave good advice.

Some of our friends were expecting like us. Al and Martha Jane, Jimmy and Shirley, Buck and Bunny were among our friends who gathered together to play bridge and/or cook fish together. All of us “growing up” with our children. We all had it figured out. 60+ years of marriage is a testament to hard work and love. Comments can be made to LaRose at [email protected].