Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Memories of our day in Sherman...continued from Anne's article

It was such a fun day and so many memories we decided for us to each write an article about it.
JoAnn had come to our house on Wednesday afternoon from San Antonio and Anne came up on Thursday morning from Quitman and we met Sharon in Sherman. JoAnn mentioned she would like to see where mother and daddy had lived on Elm St. so many years ago, in fact, she and Wayne had lived there at one time but I believe that will be in her memories.
We did see the house, made pictures and went on and saw the Forrest Ave. Baptist Church where Wayne and JoAnn had married in 1955. Sharon was 5 years old at the time and remembered that JoAnn looked like a princess in her white gown walking down the red carpeted aisle. She was a beautiful bride all of 16 years old.
We went on to 1121 So. Montgomery and saw the house where mother, daddy, JoAnn and I were living when Leland and I dated and later married in 1947. It is still there and when Anne and Sharon were making pictures the lady who lives there now drove up. They immediately started explaining to her why they were making pictures and seems she didn't understand English..oh well. I have some very vivid memories of this place. While dating, like so many other homes at that time we didn't have a phone. The lady who lived across the street did and she didn't mind that I gave her phone number to Leland. Many afternoons after I got home from school he would call me, I could hear her phone ring from our living room and wait to hear her step to the door and call "Esther". Would you believe that Leland still remembers that phone number? It was 547M.
One memory I have there concerns JoAnn when she was about 8 years old. Leland was there and we had no idea that she had slipped in the room and was hiding behind the sofa.  Well, when he kissed me she promptly hopped up from behind the sofa. I have no idea what she said..if she threatened to tell mother or not, but I knew she would. I also knew that would go over like a lead balloon. She still gets me into trouble.
On up the street at 702 So. Montgomery is where  Leland and I lived for awhile. Wayne was 4 months old there. Leland worked for White's Auto. We didn't have a car and he would ride a bicycle back and forth to work. He had two pair of kaki pants that he worked in and each day and I would wash a pair and hang them on the little porch to dry, iron them and have them ready for the next day. The little porch is still there and the house still looks much the same. One scary thing that happened while he worked at White's was one night when he started home on the bike he drove out from the alley into the street and either didn't look well enough or just plain didn't see the car but he hit it and was injured but not nearly what it could have been. The chilling memory he has is that he heard some woman say " It ran over his head." She was mistaken.
In 1944 daddy, mother, JoAnn and I moved from Dallas to 110 Elm St in Sherman.  Places to live were almost impossible to find at that time. I suppose these apartments had at one time been businesses of some kind. On this one block between Houston and Lamar there was a cafe on the north end, a service station across the street, a car lot and a grocery store. Next door to our apartment was a barber shop and more people lived in some the others. These were just one long room separated by curtains. It was not a diserable place to live but it was temporary. When you stepped out our front door you were on the sidewalk and daddy worked at the frozen food locker close by. Mother had gotten a job at a cleaners on Houston St. I was in school and JoAnn was about 4 yrs old and needed someone with her through the day so our grandmother stayed with us and kept her week days. This kid never lacked for something to get into and I am sure she was hard to keep up with. One day she came inside with her little tin cup (have no idea where she got that) and she had money in it. Seems she put on her pitiful look and as men came by going to the barber shop or some other place she held out her cup. It worked for awhile until she got caught that day and it aburptly ended when mother and daddy found out.
It was such a fun day and all agreed we need to do this more often.
Love you all Esther

JoAnn sggested that I write how Leland and I met.
I spent the night with a friend and we decided to go to the movies. She lived on East Houston st. and this was several blocks to town. We walked all those blocks at night not even thinking it was dangerous. We chose going to the State theater, it was the cheapest one in town and was a double feature.'Hands across the Border' and 'Dime a Dance' was showing. We took our seats and I honestly don't know if Leland and his friend Beadle were already there or if they came in later. I just remember that someone threw some popcorn at us..It would have been so rude to not pitch it back..this kept up awhile and I am sure it was my friend Billie that moved over one seat which left a vacant seat between us. Well, that was a clear invite and they immediately obliged. Beadle got in the seat between us and put one arm across Billie's shoulder and the other around mine. I ask Leland "are you going to let him do that"? NO he wasn't..he took his elbow and come down on Beadle's arm for him to move it and he did. Before the movie was over Leland had my name and address. I never knew if I would see him again or not but, guess he just couldn't get me out of his mind. Later he came to see me and we started dating. There is one thing that we have different memories of. He says that I threw the first popcorn but I did not, I had spent my only dime on the movie and anyone that knows me will agree that I would never do something like that. RIGHT??
Esther February 3, 2015

4 comments:

  1. Poor Jo will never live the 'little cup' story down, guess she was trying to help get some money. Loved the day of memories too.

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  2. I wish we could get together more often. The day was just too short.

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  3. I would like to hear from the members of our family who they think threw the first popcorn. Esther or Leland?

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  4. WHAT?? you don't believe me??
    come on family and defend me!!!

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