The Elopement

John Crumly
1943

The year was 1945 and I was a senior at Geraldine High School.  I started in first grade and graduated there as well.  I drove a neighbor to Crossville to the dentist and was waiting in the old A-Model I was driving.  My cousin, a friend and this young (very young)man in uniform came walking up the “street.”  Just dirt sidewalks.  Would you believe my cousin bet the service man 50 cents that he couldn’t get a date with me?  And we might say the rest is history.

The next night we went to a basketball game, on Friday night he went with me to play practice (I was in the senior play).  Saturday we went to a little neighborhood party and on Sunday afternoon we hung out with two other couples at Elrod’s bridge and I’m so proud of the pictures we made there — the bridge is gone now.

On Sunday night we eloped!!!!!!!!!!!!!  March 18, 1945 . Went to Rising Fawn, Georgia in a borrowed car.  There was a quicky place there and the Judge met us at the door and said, “Five dollars in five minutes.”  John returned to camp on Wednesday and I stayed in school.

My folks talked about annulment, but then ditched that idea.  After all, I was only 16 years old.  I wasn’t dry behind the ears, as the old saying goes.  In our day people didn’t get divorce — they stayed together for better or worse.  The first time Daddy saw John he told him, “If you’ve made your bed hard – stick the tighter to it.”  Another old saying.  One man told me he and his wife never went to bed mad — they stayed up all night and fought like hell.

John has said all along that we would have gotten a divorce, but neither would agree to take the children.  LOL

So much for this story — at another time I’ll tell you about my trip to Nebraska by myself still 16 years old.  This, too, is (was) country living.