John came right in the house and sat down on the couch. My mother slammed the phone down on the receiver and said, “John Shepherd, I’ll tell you one thing…………..she proceeded giving us a lecture that lasted for what seemed a lifetime. Finally toward the end of her talk, she must have worn down. She said to John, “I’ll tell you what, if you will give us one month to get down there and get settled, we’ll even have a little wedding for you.” Back then in Tennessee, you could get married with parents consent at  15 years old.  So we both totally agreed with that. The next day was a big packing day. We had several of us that were traveling, so there wasn’t room for much. We took two vehicles along with a U-haul trailer. We stayed a night with my sister and her husband and then we were headed to Tennessee.  We hadn’t traveled even an hour and mom looked over at me and said I’m not gonna let you get married. Well, that was certainly before cell phones, so I had no way of letting John know my mom’s news flash. I would have to wait till we arrived in Tennessee and write a letter. My drivers permit came in handy. Mom really liked having me help her drive to Tennessee. We finally arrived. Both of my parents were born and raised in Mississippi. We had several family members living back there. Dad found a job right away. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to remember the details of his job. All of us kids were registered in school. Wow, it was a huge school. Glendale had about 300 students and this school had what seemed like thousands and was two levels. I sent John several letters. He would send me letters, however, mom intercepted them. We had been there just about a month and I got a phone call from John one afternoon after school. He was asking all about the new place, the surrounding area. Mom chimed right in and told me to tell John what was all around, a 7 eleven store, a KFC , how convenient everything was. At the end of the conversation, John said, I want to tell you something, but I want you to be real quiet and not act excited.  He said he was going to have somebody come to the 7-eleven tomorrow at 5pm, they would have something for me. I asked him who. He told me it would probably be a cousin.  I asked how would know them. He said, “The car will have X’s on the hub caps.” So we finished up the conversation as though nothing was any different. Well the next day was Saint Patrick’s day. The reason I remember so vividly, is because, I didn’t have anything really good with green on it so I wore a red a line skirt with a flowered blouse, that had some green in the leaves. It was almost 5 o’clock and getting close to time for me to run down to the store to meet John’s cousin to see what he had.  The store was very close with a train track that went between the house and the store. I was getting all ready and nervous when mom said, Pam, it’s your turn to go to the laundry mat with me. We had sold our washer and dryer before leaving Oregon. I really had to get out of this one. I begged my little sister Brenda to please go. She said NO she would not go. I said, “if you will go this time, I will go 10 times in a row.” Finally I talked her into going with mom. By the time they got loaded and headed out it was just minutes before 5pm. I was home with my brother David, he was a year younger than me, and my little brothers, Tommy and Johnny, they were 6 and 7. Then my little niece Pammy (named after me) she was about 2 at the time. I had to quickly run to the bathroom and in my rush, I knocked a glass bottle of bathroom cleaner off the back of the toilet. It broke all to pieces. I told David to please keep the little kids out of the bathroom till I got back. So I headed to the store….I was so nervous. I got to the railroad tracks and I could see a car with black X’s on the hub caps….it looked like they were made out of black electricians tape….as I got closer there was this guy, clean shaven, with a hat pulled down over his forehead. I walked up as he rolled down the window…….(to be continued)