I couldn’t believe my eyes….I said, “ John what are you doing here?” He said, “Hurry get in! I said, “I can’t go with you, I’m supposed to be watching the kids, and I broke the bottle of Pine Sol cleaner into a million pieces in the bathroom, besides I don’t have anything clothes or anything.!” He told me his mom packed a few things for me. You see she had decided we were going to get married with her blessing or without it, so she decided to sign for John to get married. He needed a signature since he was only 19.  

 Back a month earlier when my mother told John and I we could get married in a month, John went in to the office at work and told them he was getting married in a month and needed a week off. Then of course he received my letters explaining that my mom said we couldn’t get married after all. Well, John kept his week vacation. John said he was determined that we were going to get married. So he sold his Motorcycle. John decided to type me up a paper giving me permission to get married from my father. He knew that the paper would need to be notarized so he decided to make a notary seal. Back then notary seals were embossed. Not like today. Today notary seals are just stamps of ink with signatures. So John said he had 2 copies of a bill of sales notarized. He brought them home. He poured plaster of paris on the notarized seals on one of the copies. It didn’t work, it flattened the seal out on the page. So he got a candle and dripped hot wax on the seal so it would hold it’s shape. He put a biscuit cutter over it and poured in more plaster of paris on top of the waxed notary seal. He said it was a perfect replica. He laid a piece of paper over the newly made seal and took a pencil eraser and pressed out the impression of the embossed seal. John said it wasn’t quite as indented as when a actual notary squeezes the embossed original, but he told me that some of them don’t squeeze as hard as others.

  Of course I knew none of this was taking place while I was in Tennessee.I was receiving a letter everyday from John. He said he wrote a whole stack of letters (and I might say……I did notice they were pretty short) he had his mom mail a letter every day, so I wouldn’t know he was on his way to Tennessee.

John’s elderly granddad and grandma along with his great aunt and uncle were planning to head back to Arkansas from Oregon. By now John’s 1966 Red Ford Ranchero was pretty beat up and had 4 bald tires. So John offered to drive this car load of little old people back home. John’s granddad had cancer on his face and half of his face was bandaged up. So granddad would have been driving with only one eye in rain snow and icy roads for hundreds of miles across the country. I guess the trip didn’t go without some mishaps. They had to have a valve job on Granddads car in Arizona and they hit some pretty nasty weather. They hit an ice storm in Texas which had cars and trucks sliding all over the roads. John said they stayed at a couple of motels along the way. John said his granddad would go to the motel office and ask them how much for the night. They would give him a price then Johns granddad would go look at the room, turn down the sheets and say, I can’t give you that much, I’ll give you….then he would offer them less money. The motel clerk would bargain with the granddad and they would settle on a price.   

John finally made it to Arkansas with his little ole aunt in the back seat crying out to Jesus several times when the car would slide. His grandparents said, “Now son, you’re not gonna go over there and get that little girl are you?” John said he kept telling them……oh, we’ll see, don’t worry about it.  

 John had his grandparents drop him off at his granny’s house. That is his mom’s mother. Granny Smart we all called her. John was gonna borrow her car to come to Tennessee to get me. John’s Granny said John could use her car, but said, “ Now Johnny, you’re not gonna steal that little girl are you……. you’re gonna go get yourself in trouble.”

 John had a full beard while we were dating and when I saw him at the seven eleven, he was clean shaven. He said he didn’t want anyone to notice him. I guess he had driven by our house several times to make sure where we lived and where the store was.

 So when I saw John in the car, and told him I couldn’t go……his face just fell…….I told him to let me go in the store and think about what to do. John kissed me, and I thought the neighbor saw me. Mother had told the next door neighbors “They tried to run off, and I caught them.” So I knew if she saw us kissing, she would know it was John. While I was walking around the store I tried to decide what to do. I was so worried about all the kids at home with the broken glass and I didn’t have any clothes…..so I finally rationalized that my brother David was only a year younger than me and that he could keep the kids safe so I decided to go. I saw the neighbor girl in the store she smiled at me and it seemed like she knew something was up…She kept following me around a smiling at me…..I was sure she saw us kiss and she knew it was John….I went out to the car and told John that I finally made up my mind as to what I should do……….. (to be continued)