June 24, 2013

• All that Glitters

  This is a repost from several years ago... except for the number of years, the tale has yet to change

   

  Forty One Years Ago
  

  I graduated from North Cobb High School (Acworth, Georgia) June 3rd, 1972. It was a Saturday evening, the ceremonies were on the football field and it was HOT. Most of my classmates headed off to the white sands of Panama City Beach, Florida to celebrate. However Barry was still in school in Nashville (nashville auto diesel college) so I took a week and headed off to Nashville with Barry.

   

  As the week wore on Barry decided that he "couldn’t live without me no more"...( Oh, The Lonely Days are Gone) We decided that if I could get a job we would just go ahead and get married and live happily ever after in Nashville. I started looking that day - I applied to a day care center, they said I could start the next week, and to the Nashville Auto Diesel College, they had an opening for the week following. I was thrilled and while driving home from the interviews I got stopped by the Nashville City Police for going 28 in a 25. The officer was a young man and right good lookin as I recall. He was also full of himself and righteous advice. He wanted to know why I was driving around in someone else’s vehicle and what business I had in Nashville. I told him the graduation story and how we were getting married now that I had found a job. The officer looked at me and said " Honey All That Glitters Is Not Gold" I looked back at him and said " I may not be very old but I’m smart enough to know Fools Gold when I see it". Then the officer wrote me a ticket and said "We’ll see about that"....

   

  Barry had an upstairs apartment in a beautiful old home on Straton Avenue. That same evening around 10:00 I heard a commotion out on the avenue and took a peak out the window only to see there was a City Police Car and an unmarked vehicle parked on the curb and three officers were heading up our sidewalk. We met them at the door and they (actually it was Officer Glitter) asked Barry if he was Mr. Bryant, of course he said yes - and they said "Mr. Bryant you are under arrest for contributing to the delinquency of a minor" they asked if I was Miss Whitener and of course I said yes and they said "Miss Whitener we have been notified by your parents that you are a runaway, we are here to escort you to the juvenile detention center ( I was only 17) and Mr. Bryant (he was older than me by one year and eight days) will have to go with this officer to the City Jail" I told them they were mistaken and gave them Mom and Dads number so they could get their facts straight - They took the number and me in the unmarked vehicle to the County Juvenile Center.

   

  They put me in a cell furnished with a plastic covered mattress, a sink and a toilet - the only light was thru a metal door that had a small square barred window which lead into the hall - and more cells. Morning finally came and with it a mean and burly looking guard woman who escorted me to the dinning area (already full with what seemed like hundreds of girls my age) sat me down and told me to eat my breakfast and if I didn’t I would never get outta there.....I wasn’t very hungry and wasn’t going to eat prison food...the girl who was sitting next to me said you’d better eat...I told her I couldn’t - so she took pity on me and ate my breakfast. Then they escorted us all back to our cells. I kept asking people if they’d called my parents and they said yes and that was all. Finally a nice looking lady walked by and I said "Please could you please tell me if anyone has called my parents." She asked my name and why I was there...She came back and said Miss Whitener there is no record of you even being here, but I have called your parents and they are on their way.... they were there in three hours....the mean and burly looking guard woman escorted me to them and told Mamma that I had been a good girl....Mamma looked at her with her mean greeneyed look and said " She is a Good Girl" I was so proud of Mamma and I was sure glad to see them.

   

  We went straight from the JDC to the City Jail to find Barry (who had been thrown in the Drunk Tank) but He had managed to bond himself out of jail, had hitched a ride back to Straton Ave and found himself locked out of the apartment because I had the keys. He climbed up the trellis and let himself into the apartment thru the window, got the keys to the cutlass and was about to take off to find me...when we arrived. I got in the Cutlass with Barry and we followed Mamma and Daddy back to the Court House where Daddy talked to a Judge and had Barry’s charges dropped. Then we went next door where Daddy signed the legal papers so that Barry and I could get married,we had our blood test done there too. Next we all went out to dinner and then back to Straton Ave. Daddy told me to pack my bags that I was coming home with them and that Barry could come pick me up in a few days. He picked me up three days later - it was June 22nd, a Thursday.

   

  On June 24th we picked up two of our friends (Curtis and Lisa) and headed down to the justice of the peace to get married. However the J.P.’s office was right next to the City Jail - crap - I didn’t want to get married next to the stinkin drunk tank. We went to White Castle for some lunch and a phone book...we ate, looked up numbers for Baptist Churches and called until someone finally answered the phone...The Reverend W.W. Miles from the Fatherland Baptist Church said he would be delighted to marry us, to meet him at the Church Office in 30 minutes. It was and I hope still is a beautiful church, the Rev. Miles took us into his office and signed the necessary papers, He said we have the sanctuary all ready for services in the morning would you like to exchange vows in there? Turned out that the Sunday Services were televised! It was so GREAT - 
  

  Beautiful Flowers - 
  

  I DO's ... 
  

  everything....

   

  We have one photograph of the day - it’s a double exposure of Barry and Me and the Fatherland Baptist Church. If I can ever get my scanner fixed I’ll post it up.

   

  And We Both Lived Happily Ever After

   

  The End

   and I still don't have my scanner fixed =/

   

   

   ILYM

  • 11:05 am
  • 10 Comments