NANCY

     On the left you see my High School Sweetheart.  She was the sweetest thing that there ever was and the prettiest thing in the world to me.  She would just purr like a kitten with her two glass pack mufflers and the flathead v-8 engine.  Oh, that's Nancy sitting on the fender.  She was a 1947 Ford business coup.  Not Nancy, I mean the car.  There was no back seat but it had a package shelf that went all the way back and the trunk came all the way up to the front seat. You could have smuggled four guys into the drive in movie back there but, of course, I would have never thought about doing that. 

     I'm sorry but I couldn't resist that.  No, this is about the real love of my life, my wife, my sweetheart, the Mother of my children, and the best all round best person that I have ever known.  If God grades on a curve she will be at the top and most of us won't make out too well.  Maybe it's copyrighted by Sarah Lee but "Nobody doesn't like Nancy Lee".  After her doing something especially nice for me I told her that I didn't know what I had done to deserve her and she answered that she didn't know what she had done to deserve me, either.  She wasn't smiling.

     Back in the ancient 1950's there was a thing called a soda fountain in most drug stores.  This was the hangout for the local high school age kids because they had a juke box (5 cents each or 6 songs for a quarter.) , tables,  or booths to sit in.  They had a "soda Jerk" employee that would mix up any kind of combination of drinks that you wanted and we did try a lot of things that were not nearly as good as we thought they would be.  I am reminded of a Lime Sour.  (water, lime juice, and salt)  Ah, the memories.

   I worked at various jobs while I was in high school to support my other love above and I was working at Popes Fruit and Grocery store (A kind of mini-mart store) at that time and I worked there until I went in the army in September.  I had just got off of work and a friend of mine suggested that we go over to Collins Drug store and get a Vanilla Coke, or Cherry Pepsi, or maybe it was a Lime Sour .  I don't remember.  The main thing that I do remember was that there was a cute young lady there with  her younger sister.  I started to talk to her and before long I asked her out.  

     I was making $1.00 an hour after my recent raise from $.50 an hour.  (Gas was also $.19 a gallon.)  It cost $1.00 for us both to get in the drive in movie and another quarter bought a hot box of freshly popped popcorn.  Oh gee, no, sorry, we can't double date because, uh, well, you see my car only has  one seat.  Just Darn it.

     I graduated from high school and we dated through the summer.  I worked till midnight and carried the money over to Pope and always drove by Nancy's house on the way home.  I had an Ougga- Ougga horn (Big rubber bulb that you squeezed to blow the horn.) mounted outside the drivers window and I would blow it as I passed her house.  She knew it was me because who else had a horn like that.  I'm sure the neighbors all hated me but, luckily, they didn't know who did it.  The midnight Harranger struck again.
    

The picture I carried .

    I went into the Army in September 1956 after graduating and it took the mail a couple of weeks to catch up with us and at a mail call they just kept calling my name out for letters.  There were 13 as well as I remember, all on the same day and more the next few days.  She had written them all along and mailed them all the same day.

    Later she sent me a package of cup cakes she had lovingly baked and iced for me.  Well, if anybody got any goodies from home we all shared them with the other fighting men.  I invited the troops to help themselves.  The army was very efficient and had folded the box to save space.  Someone said " hey, there is writing on this one".  Someone else said "mine too".  She had written me a note in icing on the icing. I wonder what it said but maybe i'm lucky the other guys couldn't read it..

    We were married in September 1958 and soon had a child on the way that turned out to be twins. (Debbie and Donna).  They were born prematurely and we lost Donna.  Debbie spent her first two months in the hospital before we could taker home when she weighed 5 pounds.  I have often wondered how it would have been to have two Debbie's although I know they would have been individuals like all their other siblings. 

    My hitch was up in Sept 1959 and I left the army.  We bought a house in East point when I was a 21 year old adult and she was a mere child of 20.   Soon, we had another baby we were planning for (Janet).  It took five kids before we figured out what kept causing it.  After Janet was born somehow insurance agents, diaper services, and everyone would find out about the new addition.  Nancy got tired of answering the door for another insurance agent with his pre-planned spiel, and another one knocked on the door.  She snatched the door open and announced to him "I've just had a baby".  It threw him off of his script and he just stood there and stammered.

     We were known by our neighbors as "The little boy and girl on the corner".  I guess we were young compared to our neighbors.  Nancy had led a somewhat sheltered life before she met me and  had never had barbecue, fried okra, or real french fries that were fried and not baked, just to name a few .  (Come with me Luke and I will show you the dark side!)

    The Mormon missionaries paid a visit one day and asked her if she had ever heard of the Mormons?  She told them that there was a lot of rental property in the area and she didn't know them.  The were very nice about it.  

    I joined IBM in 62 and later we built a larger house in College Park.  There we had three more children ( Diane, Billy, and Wade.) and completed our family.  We bought our International Travelall and had room for everyone.  It was larger than the Chevy Suburban and had a strong resemblance to the "Family Truckster" on the family circus cartoon.  The kids promptly named it Annabelle.  The car had some bad habits in that many times when passing by a Dairy Queen, Nancy would yell "no Annabelle" and not be able to control it.  It would turn into the parking lot in spite of everything she could do.  The older kids knew better but all of them would yell "Go Annabelle".   Since they were there may as well get everybody an ice cream.  She coined many words our kids still use such as "Buggyboos" (Pancakes made in shapes), Foo-Foo's (Potato Chips).  A mini-Ha-Ha Lunch (She was out of something and had to use baby food or other substitute for lunch).  A polish egg roll (an egg salad sandwich on a hot dog bun that Wade didn't want when she called it an egg salad sandwich on a hot dog bun.)  Weird Willie (A bony piece of fried chicken).  Boknots (A biscuit made with the last small piece of dough that was twisted before baking.) 

TO BE CONTINUED

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain