Charlie and Betty Meet
Mom had flown out to
Niza (c), at 90
Pete was supposed to be an
usher in the wedding. Niza had to go to
the hospital to have a baby, so Dad filled in for Pete. Mom was a bride's maid. That night they had a rehearsal dinner at the
They went to Plant Seed, FL
the first night. Then
In 1955, Mom was teaching 3rd grade.
Betty: "The school was my first class in
Dad was a flight commander at this time. Dad took the GED in 1956 and scored very high
(except for English). They rented a
little house that used to be a garage on
Mom: “I began
having pains before day on Sept 19th. I got up, woke C up, called Mamaw
to let her know to make her plans to come and arose Kim to get her ready.
We left her at Clara and Horace Howards, former neighbors. Got checked in
the hospital and they took me to the labor room. I remember the nurse
telling me to turn on my left side and hold on to the bed side (a rack to keep
me from falling off the bed.) After 8 hours of labor, they rolled me in
to the delivery room. There, I laid for quite a while. A nurses's
aide came over and put her hand on my abdomin and said, "Boy, you're going
to have a big one". The doctor got very upset with her and
orderedher out of the room. He knew that had scared me to death as he
knew about the l ong, hard labor I had had with Kim. Later, you were
born. ( It was entirely different from Kims birth. Nothing could
have been like Kim' birth. It was a nightmare.) Right after they
took you from me, the doctor and nurses got very quiet and were moving around
the room quickly.. I KNEW there was something wrong and I got so
scared. I was so upset that they told me the truth. The cord had
wrapped about your leg and your leg was almost black. The doctor told me
later that he feared the loss of your leg!!!!!!! I really knew in my
spirit that you were a special boy! I was right.”
Kim jumped on the bed and Claire told Kim to
stop. Kim told her "I could have
stayed with Niza." They rolled Mom
into labor at
Mom and Dad got into Happy
House there. They wanted to get into
something they could do when Dad couldn't fly.
Mom and Dad went to Minneapolis for a training program. They had to go to a gift show in Dallas. People told them Happy House just filed for bankruptcy. They took Mom and Dad's money and Mom and Dad
got nothing from it. No one showed them
how to display, buy, etc. It took $9000
to get in. They had borrowed $1000 from
Grandpa Fields, $2000 from Man, and Louis signed a note for $3000. Dad had $3000. Dad was working half-days as a flight
instructor. Dad did the cleaning while
Mom did the display and buying. They
went in the red every day. They did this
for three years. After they had lived on
post for a while, they were able to get into a house off post. They stored much merchandise in the
house. Aunt Lottie would rearrange boxes
in our house all the time. It was around
this time we got
Elmer and Jeanette wanted us
to move to Meadowlake Dr., Ozark, AL.
They shortly afterwards moved to Germany. We lived in Ozark 14 years. “I was a GS 13 and Chief of the Acquisitioj
& Records Djivision. I had respnsibility for gettint the accident reports -
ground & aviation- in and determining the classification of the accident
and what went into the computer. I have a wiring digram of when I retired and I
had 22 people working under me. I remember the ball playing in the front
yard at 710 Meadowlake. I was always glad of the high ground between our house
and John's - it meant I didn't have to chase the ball so far when I missed it
or a wild pitch (you can guess which one).
What was the name of the Braves first baseman who we mimiced takeing his
foot off the bag?" We sold that
house so soon Mom and Dad had to move to an apartment in Dothan. Mom had to go to the hospital twice because
of some odor. They then rented a
tri-level house with pool on Joseph Dr. for a year. Dad retired
Charlie: "I don't know what Mama told you about Food Lion but think it best that I tell what happened. Mama gave me a list as usual with numbered items to do. One of them was to pick up strawberries. I did my planning so to get back home by 12:30 so could see The Young Restless. I was running a little ahead of schedule so pulled in Food Lion lot and listened to Rush before going in store to get Strawberries. While sitting there I thought to look at the list again and noticed I had not done one thing - pick up a Town Tooter. The place was not far from where I was so drove around there and got one, came back to Food Lion parked and listened to Rush. I thought to look at the list once more and noticed she mentioned highway 176. I was on highway 25. Checking further I found I was supposed to go to Bi-Lo for the strawberries. So that is where I went. No problem."
Mom: “Last Thursday, Dad went to the post office to mail a package to you, to mail some letters for me. He had the customs receipt along with the letters in his hand and dropped them ALL into the mail box. He had to get the superintent to let him go back into the back area to get someone to retrieve the customs receipt. He saw a mailman in uniform standing against the wall in the hallway and walked by him and said, ‘Howdy.’ The man did not respond. When Dad got down to the end of the hallway, he turned and looked back at the man as he was rather upset that the man had not spoken to him. He realized that it was a dummy!!!!!!!! That's a true story and you wonder why I worry about him when he goes out alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Sat we went to a grand opening of a new residential area way out in the country. It had free bbq, helicopter rides and Dad met two guys there who went thru Wolters in Texas and Rucker in Ala. We both got free rides in the heli. Anyway, we rode this dune buggy back into the wilderness to see some beautiful waterfalls. We rode with the mayor and his wife. (Dad did not know who he was until I told him!!!! Woe is me!!!) Anyway., later we went to get a bbq plate. The mayor came and sat down beside us. Dad asked him, ‘How long have you been out of office?????????’ The mayor replied, ‘I'm still in office.’ I almost went under the table! I wish you could have seen the mayor's face when Dad asked him that question. I was facing him and he had a look of amazement on his face!!!!!!”
“Sent Dad to Hardees with a special coupon to get some fried chicken. Went over it 3 times with him. He gets out there and walks in. Puts the coupon down on the counter and says he wants that special. The guy looks at him and says, ‘This is Arby's.’”
“This week he was driving out Four Seasons Boulevard, the busiest 6 lane in town. He was in a line of traffic that stopped for the light across the street from the police station. HE WENT TO SLEEP while waiting for the light to turn green. The next thing he knew, he saw a lady in a white dress walking away from his car door going towards the police station. Her car was parked behind his and her door was opened. He realized that someone had been trying to get into his car and his door was locked. He looked behind him and there was a long line of traffic backed up with her car behind his with the door opened. He realized that he had been asleep and she had tried to get into his car so she was heading for the police station. She thought he had died!!!!! He took off FAST!!!!!! Can you imagine the thoughts that went thru that lady's head and she turned around and saw him driving off in a hurry?????????? I hope that lady never sees me in that car!!!!!!! I think it is now time for Dad to quit driving alone. !!!!!!!!!"
"I usually keep lemonade in a quart jar in the fridge for you know who. Well, with Kim and family coming last weekend, I did not have room in my fridge for the lemonade. (Can't imagine why!) Anyway, I cooked some chicken breasts to make some chicken salad while they were here and had a good bit of chicken broth left so put it in a quart jar in the fridge. You can figure out the story. Dad came into the kitchen to get something to drink with his sandwich and said he was getting some lemonade. I was busy and didn't think about not having any lemonade. Well, he took the lemonade back into the living room where he was eating his sandwich. The next thing I knew, there was a big yell and he came running into the kitchen to the sink!!!!!!! He had taken a big swig of the cold unsalted chicken broth expecting it to be lemonade and was SICK!!!!!!!! Now, how could he have blamed me???????????????"
“We went to a pig pickin bbq dinner in Asheville today. Our financial adviser opened a new office there and had a big blowout. There were hundreds of people there. You go thru this line to get your name checked off the rsvp list and to get tickets to go thru the food line. Then, you go into the big office where the big cheese greets everyone. (Forgot to tell you, but we got name tags with our names written in large letters.) As we approached the big cheese, he said, ‘Hi, Charlie, it's good to see you. Hi, Betty. good to see you too.’ (You've got to understand that we have only talked with him eye to eye about 3 times in all these years.) Well, his 3 new young associates were next to greet and they all greeted Charlie with a ‘Hi, Charlie.’ As we walked away, Charlie said I can't believe he remembered me and those young guys knew me too. I reminded him that he had a name tag on!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“I finally got Dad out of the house last night. We went to see ‘Songcatcher,’ a historical mvie about the Western NC Mountains. (We both liked it and recommend it.) It is about the old mountain music. Anyway, one scene was where a husband was shacking up with a mountain gal. He had promised her that he would never leave her for his wife. Well, in a church scene, she rushes into the church and says, ‘Reece, you promised you would never leave me!’ And with that she held up a shot gun and blasts him. The next scene is a line of people going up this steep hill to the cemetery. (Dad is wearing earphones issued by the theatre for the hard of hearing.) He YELLS out, ‘Poh old Reece.’ He was trying to be cute to me. EVERYONE hears him and turns around and looks at us and laughs. Dad did not even know that he had YELLED it and could not see the people looking at him in the dark theatre or could not hear them laughing!!!!! I just slid down in the seat!!!! When we came out, I told him and he said he saw me sliding down in the seat and thought he might have done something funny!!!!!!!!!! This happened at that little downtown art theatre that only seats about 50 or less people. They have two chairs to each little round table.”