Dating (1954)

The year before we married...1949 Ford , that was my Father's, ...he gave the car to us , when we married...Irvin kept that car washed and shined , til it looked like a new car...

Korea - 1953

Irvin at his post in Korea (1953)

To My Readers

I need to take a short break....will continue this journey of our life with you in a few days, ...thanks for reading this far...will be back soon...love you all

February 11, 1955-OUR WEDDING DAY

Our Wedding Day started out sunny, and cold...I woke up early, as there was so much to do, and 7:30 p.m. , would be there, before I knew it...Mother and Daddy with help had moved all of the Living Room furniture out to the porch, that my Daddy had built on our house and put outside blinds that opened and closed .. the washer at one end of the room, with a table for drinking tea, coffee (kind of like a sun-room), but in the winter got very cold...we had hardwood floors thoughtout the house, with a wool rug on the Living Room floor...well, folding chairs , and if I remember , we borrowed these from the Church..Our Living Room as fairly small, but they got a lot of chairs in that room...now, there was a sort of "wide archway , between the Living Room and the very small dining room (in those days, it was so small, they called it dinette) and with 3 doorways in it, there were barely enought room for a table and chairs, with the kitchen going from the small dining rm. and the doorway to living room, and doorway to the hallway with a bedroom on each end of the hallway, the front bedroom at the time, mine... with a 1 bath in between the 2 bedrooms...(in those days, that was the usual size of a home)..First thing on my list to do was to , wash my hair...which brings me back to another very DUMB thing I did...my hair length was to my shoulders..well, in those days, the style was curly..and we all put "pincurls" in our hair every night to have that curl...no hair spray, no hairdryer, no curling irons ..the only place you found that was at the "Beauty Shops"...well, someone decided that I needed to get a "perm", the day before the wedding, BAD IDEA!, at that time, the shops all had these hugh machines with the curler extentions that they put on your hair, that heated up, and therefore gave you curl, and saved a lot of pincurling at night...It was just as horrible as it sounds, it took hours to get a perm...and to do something like that right before your wedding is CRAZY...I was sorry I even considered it before I got out of that beauty shop, which was a shop miles from our home, as there were no shops near our house, as everyone did their own hair, unless there was a special event going on...well, this WAS special, but I wished a thousand times, I have left well enough alone...well, the operator finally took those things off my head..and combed my hair out...she had cut it, and of course the curl made it look shorter ...it WAS curly, and although it wasn't too short, I thought it looked horrible...thinking back, if I had got the perm another time, it would not have seemed so dramatic, but that seemed like such a terrible thing at that time, to deal with..now. I was not supposed to wash it for a few days, NO WAY, I went home and washed it, and toweled dried it as much as I could..I had to do a lot of combing to finally get it halfway the way I wanted it, then I still pincurled it that night to see what would happen, but the next morning, I decided to wash it again, towel dry it and see..well, I still had to pincurl it ..It seems I spent the whole morning on my hair, and was so scared about it ..I thought Thank God for the hat...even tho, it was a small hat, it covered a lot of "that stuff"....I got stuck in the bathroom, as Irvin and if I remember, Oscar came over later in the morning, I guess to help with the chairs, etc, ..but i could hear them talking , and decided they were at the table, having coffee with my Mother, and Daddy was probably working, as he never took off from work...and he got home, about 3:30 or so...well, I worked with my hair, and cried  ...I couldn't go out of the bathroom, as everyone would see me, as anyone sitting at the table was in full sight of the bathroom door, which I locked..I did everything that I could do in the bathroom, like doing my nails again, still fussing over the hair, finally getting it under a little control, then I cleaned the bathroom up , it was shining, when I finally heard them go into the Living Room...I dashed out to my room , and closed my door, and waited until they laft to come out, which was early afternnon, and still so much to do...well, my Daddy came home, and it seems in no time at all, it was getting time, for me and Mother and Daddy to get dressed, as we were sure that everyone would start coming early, and we were right.. they did...My Daddy and I were to come from my room, down the small hallway,(which could not be seen from the living room)...Irvin and I had picked out our music...it was a LP of Perry Como singing Because..A beautiful song, and one of our favorites, and just right for our Wedding...someone was assigned to stop the record at a certain point,...we started it as it was in my room , just inside of the doorway, when we left my room...My Daddy had tears in his eyes, and had me almost crying when we started down that hallway into the dining room to stand in the wide doorway, which we had put Crepe Paper Wedding Bells over, by the way,..Mother had bought a lace table cloth for the table, which held the Wedding Cake, punch bowl, etc...(on those days, that was what was served; cake, punch, coffee) well, Irvin, his Best Man, Neta, and Frances Gail, (my flowergirl), she was about 6 years old, and I wanted her in my Wedding, so, a flowergirl seemed the best way to do that..She had on a little pink dress, and looked so darling..She walked in front of My Father and I and went and stood by Neta ...The music was stopped, and our Pastor(Brother David Boston) started the cememony....we had a simple ceremony, repeating the vowels, and puting on each others rings, (back then, that was the usual ceremony...) The Pastor reading from the Bible in first Corh....I can remember looking and seeing so many people there, and thinking , that it seemed impossible to get that many people into that small room...We were So Happy!...Mother and some of the Ladies, went into the kitchen, and started getting the coffee, and plates together for the cake, punch, coffee...We cut the cake, and I don't even remember eating any that night.., Irvin had gone and lit our bathroom heater in our apt. , earlier that day, It was a built in heater...which to be was really "uptown", and our apt was toasty warm, when we got there...It was a very cold night, and I put on my short whilte coat when we got ready to leave...this was the same coat I wore on our first date...well, we said "goodbye" and hugged our Parents, (all of Irvin's family were there, even his Father) like I said, it was a full house that night..we left with everyone coming out to wave at us and the boys shouted (did the guy thing)..and we were on our way.....

Countdown

The weeks before our Wedding was so busy and rushed...most nights after I got home from work, and Irvin came over, we either would take something over to our apt., or sit and plan...I remember one night,we were both so tired,..we just sit down on the couch, with the television on, and it was cold, ..my Mother and Father had a wall furnish installed in our hall way wall, the latest thing at that time, up until then, we had used a space heater in the Living Room, and everyone would stand in front of that heater to "warm -up"...well, this wall furnish was sort of like what we have now as central heat, except, actually, it didn't exactly warn the entire house, and it is a good thing, our house was small..the living room was always "toasty warm" on cold nights..anyway, on that night, I think it was turned up on high as we sit there, watching the t.v...(we usually didnt watch much television), too much to do, and too many places to go, but I think that night, we were just too tired to move...we both fell asleep...and Mother said, she kept thinking, we were still watching some show, and thought, that it was getting so hot, til finally she got up, put her robe on, and come in to turn down the furnace, and there we sit, sound asleep in the wee hours of the morning..she woke us up, and Irvin jumped up and still sleepy, seeing the time, said he better be on his way home, he was sure, his Mother would be worried , it being so late or rather early in the morning.....one Saturday, my Mother and I went downtown to buy last minute things, one being my Wedding shoes...I had my Wedding dress made, I was still what we called "skinny", at 89 lbs...It was a sky-blue Taffeta with a "Peter Pan" collar, 3/4 sleeves, small covered buttons to the waist, with a V gathered full skirt, and was what was called then, "Ballerina Length", a popular length those days...now I had decided to wear pink shoes, with a pink hat (the hat, I had already found earlier in the month of January, and back then, your hat and shoes and handbag , we thought had to "match") and I had bought pink gloves to match...another accessory that we wore then, gloves...just watch any movie, made in the 50's and you will see the style of that decade..well, we looked in every store, downtown, and finally we thought, one store left...now, this store was very "high -end", not one we would usually shop at , at all...we went into it, and headed for the shoe department, and in those days, there were many people on the floor, to "wait" on you, " asking , "May I help you", ....we sit down, and I told the salesman, I was looking for pink high heels, and he said , "I have one pair of pink heels", (another thing, in those days, if you couldn't find a color , you wanted in a shoe, you could have a white pair dyed , the color you wanted, which a lot of women did for wedding, especially for Bridesmaids shoes..), which i thought I was going to have to do, but really didn't want to , as there was usually just the 'pumps" ..the only style then , you could dye...he brought out the box of shoes in my size...they were a bit higher than I usually wore, as I wore heels every day to work, and usually on our dates, unless we were just going to the drive-in, etc...but, I loved these shoes, they were BEAUTIFUL, and I was SO tired of looking for shoes...I thought, this is a good sign..my poor Mother was so tired too, and about to just give up,...we were both tired and hungry, as we didn't even stop to have lunch, just a coke , in between looking for those pink shoes.,...the shoes were a perfect match for the hat(which had tiny, little flowers around the front, (looked so much like a Wedding hat), I was so happy, to finally complete my Wedding clothes...when we finally got home, it was early evening...and my Daddy and Irvin were sitting waiting, and having coffee, about to go and look for us..of course, (being men), they thought we should just be able to go into the first store, and find those shoes...
         In the last few days before our wedding, we moved our clothes over to the apt.., and everything else that we needed..I just kept what I needed for work, etc, and slept on the couch in the living room , and Irvin did the same , taking his clothes , except what he would need...we were on the Countdown, counting every day, hour and minute...