56 years ago, on December 28th, we two innocents stood before Judge Jean Kirkland in the courthouse in Brewton, Alabama and vowed to love, honor and obey (ouch) each other until death and taxes came due. All he owned was a car and the monthly payment. Together we owned only our names and trust in each other and have tried really hard to keep them both good.
So, with $500.00 dollars we head over to New Orleans (a.k.a. ‘Sin City’) to share a "lavish" two-day honeymoon. We were due back really soon to continue our factory jobs at Escambia Chemical and Chemstrand. Both shift work jobs, both on different shifts. "Love Will See Us Through." So, after the "I Do's" we drive out to Barnett Crossroads to announce our legality to the Smith side.
"Harrumph, you should have done it in church!"
SIGH!
Then on to Hollandtown to tell the Crews family they now own a new daughter-in-law. My new mother-in-law Annie Ruth gave us her opinion with,
"I knowed y'all was getting married when Lamar didn't come home last night and I checked his closet to see his suit was gone." All that said while hugging my neck and welcoming me to the family. My new father-in-law Alvin hugged me and said,
"Lamar you picked good." That was a sweet moment as I missed my mama and daddy so much. Both had passed away several years earlier and I still needed them. I needed approval. Oh well, forward ho…
We ate seafood for our wedding supper and spent our wedding night in the Sahara Motel on the dry side of Hwy. 98 in Mississippi City. That place has since been swallowed up by the likes of Biloxi/Pass Christian or the Mississippi Gulf coastline. Not even on the maps now. The motel had a swimming pool and everything…high cotton nice!
We eventually landed in New Orleans to gawk and stroll along the streets while I gasped at life-size pictures (pasties only) of stripper Blaze Starr, girlfriend of former Louisiana Governor Earl Long. Bourbon Street was roped off as the city got ready for some New Years’ decadence. I heard a trumpet and poked my head inside a darkened doorway to see what may have been Al Hurt practicing, JAVA.
Then my HUSBAND opens his pockets to honor his new status and WIFE with a delicious dinner of lump crab while we sat under the arbor vines in the Two Sisters Courtyard. I was IMPRESSED, not by the lump crab, but by the pomp and circumstance of the place and the courtly waiters.
Reality was hard to come back to when we got home to spend the first night with my new in-laws. The weather had gone crunk and it was SNOWING. New Years’ Eve 1963.
I asked my new mother-in-law what I should call her and without skipping a beat she answers,
"You can call me Grandma, that’s what Jerry calls me."
Grandma it was. To the day we honored her with a funeral at which I spoke about our relationship, I never called her anything but, "Grandma." Had my own mama lived longer than my eighteen years, she couldn't have loved me more or treated me better than Grandma Crews did for me.
Grandma fixed us a fresh bed and piled on enough blankets and quilts to repel the cold that invaded our back bedroom. No heat source other than each other, those covers and the wrapped bricks Grandma had heated in the fireplace to lay at our feet. "Hot dang!" I felt the love from her that night.
New Year’s morning 1964 showed us a winter wonderland, a new year on the calendar, and the urgent need for us to scramble for a place to live. We found a one-bedroom apartment in Pensacola which cost us $35.00 per month plus lights, water, and garbage. Dang, we had bills coming due. Thankful for jobs waiting.
Life taught us many lessons these past 56 years, but with all the trials and tribulations, we have been rewarded with two precious kids and two PERFECT grandkids. Today we look back and see our mistakes and some accomplishments, but we know for sure the only thing we can leave this world with is our good names. We hope our progeny stays the course.
We now enjoy old age and all that wreckage while driving backroads, looking for a past that is disappearing faster than we can find it. As messed up as the world is today, we remember those days of having less as some of our finest times.
HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'ALL!
You can check out Earline’s blog and buy a copy of her first book “Life With the Top Down” at: http://www.earlinesdoins.com
