Missed Opportunities

Hubby and I were both born in the old hospital, delivered by the same doctor, and both mothers were tended by the Sisters there. As we were born three months apart, we did not see each other there.

Remember my $22.00 hospital bill? The room rate was $5.00 a day, the delivery room was $10.00, laboratory was $1.00, and the identification bracelet was $1.00. I am sure his parents received a similar bill.

We started first grade the same year. Nurse Simmons may have given us our pre-registration immunizations at the same time. Perhaps he and his little sister were in that ugly green tiled waiting room as I made my little brother get his shots first. Did my mother nod hello to his mother in the hallway? I think I would have remembered this cute little guy.

My brother and I played tag and caught lightening bugs late into the night with a gang of other kids while Daddy played country-western music with friends around town. Hubby's folks did too but I do not remember seeing them.

Jim Reeves was Daddy's favorite singer. In The Garden was Mama's favorite song. Our friend Debbie sang it at her funeral. I do not remember what we chose for Daddy's funeral.

Don and I both spent every Tuesday afternoon during the summer watching the free-with-six-RC-bottle-caps Strand Theater matinees. I sent my brother all over town scrounging up enough of those bottle caps to get us both in. Was hubby one of the rowdy boys up in the balcony who threw popcorn down on us squealing girls? If we had known each other then, maybe he would have given me a little shove as we waited in line at the concession stand. You know - to show he liked me. I do not recall that happening.

How many times did he ride his motorcycle down Highway 64 in front of my aunt's house as my two cousins and I sat on the storm cellar waving at the then-busy highway traffic? My uncle still teases that we were looking for fellers. We saw a lot of semi's but I do not remember many motorcycles. We probably would have ran screaming into the house if someone on a motorcycle had stopped. He caught chickens for this same uncle once but as I had little to do with the chicken houses, I did not see him there either.

After years of both of us going to Knoxville Halloween carnivals, you would think we would have cake-walked together a time or two. Or maybe sat across from each other in the lunch room for the hamburger dinners they served. I do not remember seeing him there.

Mama talked a lot about the women she worked with at the chicken plant. She frequently mentioned a friend named June and her sister Sue. I remember her saying how pretty June was and how she and Sue were always together. I do not remember her mentioning anything about June's son though.

Although the early part of the seventh grade was a blur, I do not recall seeing a new boy named Don. And though we both walked to the Diamond for a corn dog at lunch from time to time, I am not one of the girls he remembers seeing there.

How do you like the tightly curled bangs in my seventh grade picture? I probably slept with brush rollers in my hair the night before this was made. Or it may have been those pink sponge curlers. See the crocheted chain Grandma made for me to keep up with my locker key. I really worried about losing it or leaving it at home. Mama said I worried about a lot of things.

Although I was very nervous about the first few days at the high school up on the hill, at least I got to go there with the friends I had gone to school with ALL MY LIFE! When Mama and Daddy moved and I had to start a new school in the eleventh grade, I WAS ALL ALONE! I am sorry I was shouting but I really did not want to leave Clarksville schools. 

If we had ever connected in those first sixteen years, maybe my transition to a new school would have been easier. Maybe he would have driven his old car all the way out to Hickeytown to pick me up that scary first day of school. We did go on one date in high school. I cannot remember if it was during our junior year or senior year. And I really do not remember where we went. It must not have been very memorable. 

We may go on a real date tomorrow for our forty second wedding anniversary. If we remember.