lifetime - My Southern Heart

It was Autumn of 1965 and I was falling in love…I just didn’t realize it at the time.

I thought Bill and I were just very close friends – soulmates – who spent as much time together as possible, sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings.

I was still hearing from Ross who was at sea on the U.S.S. Forrestal, and Bill was still dating the tall redhead named Linda. I knew he wasn’t serious about her, but she, evidently, had other plans. One afternoon in the BSU, I was sitting with a group of friends when Linda came over to our table. She had a notebook with her and commented directly to me, “I wanted to show you the menus I’ve planned for when Bill and I get married”…hmmm.

A loud bell went off in my head, and I remember the thought I had at that precise moment: “THAT’S what you think”. Quiet little Baptist girl I was…but the thought was there all the same.

Not long after that, Bill and I started officially dating exclusively. It was a late Autumn afternoon, and we went to the movies at the Audubon Park Theater. When we came out, night had fallen and it was snowing….enormous beautiful snowflakes drifting down in the moonlight. We drove through Audubon Park with its magnificent trees covered in a blanket of white. Bill spun circles in the snow in his black little VW bug, and we laughed until we almost cried…

Bill asked me to marry him sometime in early 1966…I said no the first time. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was still a little scared of the whole idea of marriage…I don’t know. I’m glad he asked the second time a few weeks later, when I promptly said yes.

We began planning a wedding for September 1966. We were both still in college and each working part-time. Needless to say, there was very little money; but we were young and in love, and that didn’t seem to be a problem. My mother made my beautiful wedding dress. I had an exquisite bouquet of yellow roses, and my bridesmaids each carried a long-stemmed yellow rose with greenery and ribbons. The church was packed with family and friends. It was a beautiful wedding…

We couldn’t afford an official “honeymoon” at that time, so we took special day trips to fun places within driving distance of our new little duplex home. We drove to Shiloh and toured the battlefields of the Civil War. We went to Pickwick Lake…and even managed to get an invitation to go below to see the inner workings of the huge dam there (Bill was an industrial technology major and loved that). We took a picnic to Shelby Forest. Without spending much money at all, it was still a wonderful time…

Leaving the church after the reception…back when everyone still threw RICE at you!