When Danny
was in the ninth grade, the Love bug bit.
She is in the seventh grade and I remember him saying, “Momma, she is so
sweet.” She is now our Daughter-in-law
and he was right, she is so sweet. Danny
graduated in 1973 and joined the Navy in 1975.
That was one of the hardest thins I ever remembering doing. That morning, we got up and fixed breakfast,
and ate without one word being said. As
he sat on the footstool in front of the stove, tying his shoes, his eyes were
looking at each little thing in the room.
He then gets up and goes into the kitchen where he took a long look out
the kitchen window and then again he looks at each little thing in the
kitchen. We are now ready to go.
His Daddy
says, “Son, are you ready?” and he nods yes and outside we go. Here again, his eyes take in each thing, the
porch swing, the flowers and each tree.
Then Harry, his dog, runs up and I see a tear in his eye. I silently pray, “Please, Lord, don’t let him
see me cry” and I swallow very hard.
When we leave, I can hardly stand it because Harry runs along beside us
down the hill. Danny turns his head so
that I can’t see the tears, but we are all teary-eyed for a few long minutes.
When we get
to the bus station in Jonesboro, we have to wait for about thirty minutes. Again, no one is saying much, just words
like, “Got your ticket?” “Be sure and
call.” And so on. Then the bus came and every one is up and out
and Danny just sat there. Soon, there is
no one left but us. Loran and I just sit
there and then Danny gets up and said, “Well, I guess I better get going.” We hug him and out we go to the bus. Here again he stops and I pray again for the
Lord to not let him see me cry. When he
kissed us good by, we are all were teary eyed, but we knew this was his
decision to make. We had talked about it
and I didn’t want him to go at all, but that was what he wanted. With that sweet kiss our little boy left to
return a man.
As we
walked off to the truck, we both got in and we both cried. When we received that post card saying that
he had got there and we would be hearing from him soon, all he had written on
it was “Love, Danny”. All the rest was
pre-printed by the Navy. But that didn’t
matter, we had heard from our son. The
first call was on Saturday morning and I had done to mothers, so I didn’t get
to talk to him.
When he
finished his basic training, we went to Memphis to get him. Some way his flight got mixed up. He was suppose to be there at six in the
evening and we were there at five. At
ten, we were still waiting. All we could
find out was that he had bought a ticket.
We called the Training Center at Orlando and they told us he had left
camp. We just couldn’t find him. They told us that maybe he was out partying,
but we knew our son and we knew he was a responsible person and somehow he was
just out of pocket. We just didn’t know
where.
We called
our nephew, David White, and asked him if he would go over to our house and
stay until we got home, because we knew that Danny would be trying to call home
if at all possible. We left Memphis at
ten because the next flight from Orlando was at eight the next morning. When we pulled into the drive at home, David
was on the porch. “Uncle Lefty, Dan
called. He has been stranded in Atlanta
and will be getting in at 1:10AM.”
Loran,
Dennis, and David just turned around and went back. Danny got to Memphis before they did, so he
called and we talked for forty-five minutes at least. About 4:30, they finally got home, and this
time we all cried.
When he
came home at Thanksgiving, we notice a new face around the house. Not really new, but one we hadn’t seen a lot
lately. Now we see her quite often. Her name is Jeanne, the same little girl in
the seventh grade. March 6, 1976, Danny
and Jeanne were married. It was a
beautiful wedding. They moved to Chicago
where he was going to school in the Navy.
They moved from Chicago to Mayport, Florida and then to Boston,
Massachusetts. In Boston, we were surely
blessed with our first grandchild. Donna
Kay flew out there to help out.
On July 24,
1979, our first grandchild made her way into our lives. They called her Holly Dawn, better than
Christmas, and more beautiful that the sun rise. She started talking when she was two months
old and at twenty-one months, she was still saying the same things. From Boston, they moved back to Florida,
where nineteen months later, we were blessed again with our second grandchild
and our first Grandson.
Michael
Shawn was born on January 15, 1981 in Jacksonville, Florida. He looks so much like Danny. Danny had to leave on a cruise shortly after
his on was born, so he has sent them home to Arkansas where he knows they will
be taken care of. Today is April 5,
1981, and if it is the Lord’s will, come April the 13th, Danny will be starting
to Arkansas, his six years in the Navy will be up. He has really seen the world, from Cuba to
the Persian Gulf and back again.
While Donna
was in Boston helping Jeanne and Danny, one afternoon we hear a knock on our
front door, and a new face appears, this time a boy. In small talk, this new boy asked where Donna
was. I had never seen him before, then I
remembered Donna telling me about this new boy she had met. “His name is Jess Hale. Mom, you know his family, don’t you?”
When she
called I told her that he had come by to see her and she got so excited. They started seeing each other in August and
by December, she had a promise ring, or so we thought. Because come June 21, 1980, they are married
in an outside wedding service at our home.
They live here in Marmaduke and are very happy.
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