Our first date...

It's 1957, and I'm starting my senior year in high school.  I will be seventeen in a few weeks.....
Mama wanted me to be a nurse, and Daddy had hopes  I would go to business school...What did I do...I fell in love ...and the rest as they say is history.  Billy was three years older than me which was an issue in my days.  How does it all unfold...  Our story of the first time we met each other.

Billy and his brother, Tommy, had took over the operation of a Texaco service station at the corner of Main and Ward Street.  I got a phone call from my cousin telling me all about the cute boys at this service station across the street from their house.  Not that I was interested because I already had a steady boyfriend,  but I thought it would be a good time to go down for a visit after school on Friday...  So,  I went down to spend the night with Shelby and Shirley, and the next morning we really needed to go buy some cheese crackers and a Pepsi .  There just happened to be this station across the street where we could go get these.  And, that's when I met my future husband.  When I was paying for my much needed purchase, Billy said "I like to hold hands with you".  Now I was getting a little nervous. As we were leaving, he said " I'm going to come see you Tuesday night".  I was not too worried as he had no idea where I lived.  I would have to say he was quite the charmer and really cute.

I need to bring you up-to-date.... I still had family on Main Street.  We had moved to Meadow Street, and my aunt Ruth with her girls had moved to Main Street from Salisbury. My aunt Ruby and her family still lived on Main as well as Grandma and Grandpa who still lived on Lake Street.  In my junior and senior high school years, not many weekends went by that I didn't go down and spend Friday night with either Shirley and Shelby or Jewell, and we would go help Grandma on Saturday mornings.  There was a short cut from
 English to Main so I would either walk or ride my bicycle.  And, sometimes I would ride the city bus.

O.K. it's Tuesday night, and I'm learning how it feels to have a bad case of the nerves.  I was waiting close by the door just in case. and at 7:00, I heard a knock.  I opened the door and said," can we talk on the porch". He had the most beautiful smile, and he said didn't I tell you I would see you Tuesday night.

I had not mentioned anything about Billy to Mom and Dad but now it's time for them to meet.  This was the first time I knew that Billy had never met a stranger.  With our quiet family sitting down, Billy told them his life story in a matter of minutes and how he had become friends with Shirley and Shelby when he went over to visit them and ask for our address.  I knew Mom and Dad were thinking he was probably a little too old for me, but they let me go out with him.  This just seemed so different.  I had always known the boys that I dated either from school or church, but within thirty minutes Billy made me feel as if we had known each other all of our lives.  I had read about this feeling in lots of books, and thought it was all fiction.

I knew he was going to be fun when we drove down to the Chicken Thief, and when the girl came out to take our order, Billy ordered a hot dog with lettuce and tomato.  She thought he was serious for about two or three minutes.  This is  the beginning of our life together...

Jeanette & Billy...summer of 1958