Courting: A Love Story

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8  (Feb 22-28)

Prompt: Courting

#52ancestors 

My late cousin, Nancy (VanHoozer) Bradley, shared this with me after our Grandmother passed away.  It was hand written on a small notepad by Gladys Mamie (Sample) McCarley. I hope one of her daughters still have the original. I am just very happy that Nancy let me copy it. 

To give you some context and a timeframe.  My Grandmother got married in 1929 when she was 15 years old and my Grandfather was 25 years old. Loda Stout was my Grandfather's 1st cousin.

 To my Granddaughter, Nancy, who has asked for a love story. 

How well I remember the first time I met your Grandfather. It was at a dance at my Grandparents house. They had recently moved to a farm S.E. of Marlow. My Mother and Step Father and I went over for the dance on Sat. night. They left me to spend a week with my Step Grandparents who were the only Grandparents I ever knew. 

Any way I saw this guy dancing and thought, "I want to dance with him".  Later, I learned he had looked at me and said "There is my wife."  He did come and ask for a dance and of course I said yes. But just then they broke for a 5 or 10 minute intermission. When the music started again he came after his dance, but I didn't recognize him and told him I had this dance. My Aunt told me this was the one so I had to apologize and we danced & danced & danced mostly all the rest of the eve. 

Next day Loda Stout who lived 1/4 mile from Grandma's came and asked me if I would go with your Grandpa to the circus that night.  I told a little fib to my Grandparents in order to get permission. I told them I had been going with boys for some time and I had, really, in a group. Loda had not been going with boys either but because she would be with her cousin & I she was allowed to go.  So it was a blind date and double date. Your Grandpa made a date for Loda & she made a date for him. We went to the circus every night that week. Never did get your Grandpa on the Ferris Wheel. 

He started coming to Lawton to see me and of course I came to Marlow every excuse which was parties that turned into dances. 

We even gave a few "parties" ourselves after we were married and moved back to Marlow. Had to stop because a group of boys from Rush Springs started coming and getting drunk. The last one we gave all four of the McCarley boys almost got into a fight trying to get them to leave. 

I'm getting ahead. 

Grandpa for some reason (I think he was testing our relation) failed to come over for 3 or 4 months. Any way I thought I had lost him when one day a knock was heard on the door and I answered. I was so shocked & happy. I almost didn't ask him in. We just stood and looked at each other. 

After that he was over every weekend until he got a job on railroad at El Reno?, then when he couldn't come over he sent your Uncle Floyd. Floyd & I had some good times together. I thought, and still do, a lot of him. He has always been more like a big brother. As you know I was an only child and welcomed a big brother or sister but Viola never accepted me as her sister. Sister-in-law, yes. 

Your Grandpa never said "I love you". He never asked me to marry him. He did ask me to take a trip with him and I said not unless we were married. Somehow we just started planning our wedding. Never did take that trip. 

As I said your Grandpa never said, "I love you" in so many words but his actions said so beyond a shadow of a doubt. He literally gave his life that I and our children might have a good life. It wasn't his fault that I wasn't completely happy with the kind of life I had to live to be with him, the man I loved with all my heart. I'd do it all over again if given the chance. He would have given me the moon if he thought I needed it, but if I asked for it he would have laughed at me. 

I think your Grandpa was born to help others. It seems that when a tragedy occurred he was always there.  Once a bridge (RR) was falling and he ran in under it, held it up till 4 men could get out. and as he jumped back it fell.  He was there to pick up a man from under a load of sand that had been dumped on him from a dump truck. He was there to pick up the broken bodies of some kids who had a head on from playing chicken. If anyone in the neighborhood was sick or dying, he was there. 

After we married we lived in El Reno for a while. Then he was (bumped) that is, a man who had been with the railroad longer took his job. He had to go to Ft. Worth to (bump).  We lived in Ft. Worth the rest of that winter and he brought me back to his Mother to have my baby - Gwonda.  That was a lonesome time for me I spent a lot of time on the creek crying. .... After she was born I only had to look at her to see your Grandpa. But finally he took us home with him. Then he got bumped again. 

He got a job baking pies in Bowie, Texas. But he decided to come back to the farm he had leased at Marlow. I'll never forget that trip. We had a sport coupe. (I don't know the make). We put everything we owned in the car. I sat on top of quilts, holding Gwonda all the way from Bowie to Marlow. Was I ever glad to get there. 

Since your Great Grandpa had rented his farm & house and was living in your Grandpa's, we moved in with them until first of the year when they moved back into their own.