Spring & Summer1960

When I arrived home from Ann's house I was totally surprised that my Dad didn't get on my case about being late. A few days later however, he casually said to me that the car wasn't driving just right and did I know anything about it. I said no and he just let it go. Oh, if I had only realized how gracious my Dad was being! Senior week at our high school was the following week from the gas station incident. All seniors got a lot of privileges during that time. One afternoon I was sitting in my shorthand class when Jim Brackett came into the classroom. All the girls perked up when they saw him! ( during those days, he looked a lot like Ricky Nelson a rock & roll singer popular at that time! As you can see from a previous post, I liked Ricky Nelson!) He said to my shorthand teacher that he needed a secretary to take some dictation. She complied and told him to pick whoever he wanted. He looked us over and his eyes landed on me! He must have recognized me from the gas station and said that he would take me. WOW! Can you imagine how excited this girl was!? Well just go back for a moment in time and hear her heart thumping? That day was the beginning of our young love. We went over to one of the biology labs and he very formally said he wanted me to take a letter to a former girlfriend! I didn't care who it was to. All I knew was in that moment I was in a state of shock and just thrilled to be where I was, doing what he was asking me to do. This teenage girl fell in love on the day she met; this personable, cute guy. Sounds crazy, I know but it's true. We started dating almost immediately. Actually, the dates consisted of driving me home from school, going to the movies, going down to the Point which was a beach where a lot of kids hung out. There was another young man I had started going with who had just given me a friendship ring a few days before. I felt really terrible about having accepted his ring. Being the honorable young man that he was, Jim took the ring back for me and explained the situation to this other guy. I didn't have enough nerve to face him. I did feel bad, but my feelings for this guy named Jim were very strong. The first big date we had was to the senior class picnic. It was here that I was acknowledged as Jim's girl and for the next 6-8 weeks we dated steadily and frequently. In July of that year I had to go with my parents to Ocean City Md for our family vacation. I didn't want to leave my new boyfriend for a whole week. ( I was afraid he might meet another girl) He was invited to join my family for the next weekend but I was still insecure. On Friday afternoon I was on the front porch of the rental house anxiously waiting to see if he would really show up. And, yes he did! He has since told me that he spent the whole week getting his car all spiffed up just to come see me and that he wouldn't have missed it for the world. Oh! what needless worry; God is still teaching me to think on what is TRUE. It was true that Jim loved me and much more than I ever realized. I still had my part-time job at the bakeshop and he had one at Towers Dept. store in the shoe dept. One evening at a drive in theater in Lake Shore MD Jim told me of his desire to live the rest of his life with me. So when asked if I would marry him I answered yes I would. As with everything else in my life, I never gave it a second thought. I was living for the moment and didn't think about what lie ahead. The pledge was given and received and the plans were formulated to accomplish a secret wedding ceremony. We knew neither one of our parents would agree to us marrying so young and especially me not having finished high school yet. This is why we decided to keep all of this a secret till after I finished school. Then we planned to tell our parents.

The Year Was 1960!

In November of 1959 I turned 17 years old. I was in the 11th grade at Brooklyn Park High School taking what was then called "The Commercial" course. The courses were geared to preparing me for an office job. Typing, shorthand, bookeeping plus the other required subjects like English, history, science and gym were what my studies consisted . Not really having any definite plans as to what I wanted to do after high school I took this course of study with the idea in mind of working as a stenographer or secretary after graduation. My parents never discussed going to college with me, but later on they said they had wanted me to go to Hood college to finish out my education. Perhaps they wanted me to become a teacher. I'll never know for sure. I was a pretty good student with A,B grades and maybe a C or two. I often wonder how kids at that age know for sure what they want to do with their lives and make their educational choices wisely! All I know is at that time in the history of my life I didn't really have a clue. (but God did and He allowed me to grow up at my own pace) Being a young teenage girl, wrapped up in herself and desiring to be popular I pretty much went along with my peers and what they were up to. At this point in time I was becoming rebelliously independent and disrespectful to my parents. I wanted to smoke cigarettes so I badgered my parents till they said ok. After all, they had given my younger brother Bucky permission so why couldn't I? One of the interests I had in high school was belonging to the Civil Air Patrol. Our unit met at the fire hall in Riviera Beach once a week. I don't remember how I got involved in this but I enjoyed wearing the uniform and going to meets where we marched. At our home station we would practice marching and listen to talks about CAP. I met a lot of different people through this organization. I believe I was only involved for about 1-1/2 years. For some unknown reason I've always liked uniforms and the discipline of the military. I went to lots of dances and parties with girlfriends and as I got older I began to have a few boyfriends. Mostly, I just wanted to go out and not sit at home on a Friday or Saturday night. I must admit I used a couple of guys who had cars just to go somewhere. One night in the spring of 1960 I was to take a girlfriend home from my house but instead of doing that she encouraged me to drive down to Glen Burnie to a gas station where some of the guys hung out! So, that is exactly what I did! She was right, there were a group of guys there that she knew. They were all seniors and some were pretty popular. One of those guys came over to my window where I was seated behind the wheel and wanted to know if he could drive my car. It was my Dad's '55 Pontiac 3 speed stick shift. I didn't give it a second thought as I got out and gave him the wheel! His name was Jim and he took the car for a ride around the block. Little did I know that he burned a few thousand miles off the tires before returning. We stayed for a while then I realized that my Dad would be expecting me home by now. We left the station and I drove her back to her house in Brooklyn. Then I drove home with a story as to why I was late. ( to be continued)