Finishing Freshman Year

The second and third quarters of the freshman year were great fun. I loved every class except US History. Each time I tried to read my assignment I was so tired I fell asleep. Who could have imagined that I would become the wife of a prominent history professor? It was a six year journey to meet him, so I will endeavor to describe my personal feelings along the way.

With Christine being the most beautiful and most modest girl on campus, I occasionally had random dates through her boyfriends. The first month, in September, the campus newspaper featured the three most beautiful new freshmen. She was one of the three, but she never seemed aware of her unusual beauty. The second time I went home Chris and Ellen went home with me. I had told them that my home was very humble. The three of us slept in my parents' bed in the living room and my parents slept in my single bed for the one night. We went to a movie with the boy I had a crush on in high school. He had been my only date my senior year. I was senior class president, and at the senior banquet I had to give a speech. I told my dad I had to have a formal dress (true!) and an escort ( stretching a bit ). He said I could ask James Grady, a very cute guy all the girls had a crush on whose nick name was "Sugar Man".

Two senior boys asked me, but I hesitated because I honestly didn't think Daddy was going to let me go with a boy. I would have been so humiliated to have him drive me there and wait outside for the banquet to be over. S. M. had flirted with me for a year, and since he lived on the adjoining farm had even stolen a kiss once, but he knew my daddy! One day he said, "Arthur said if I could get a date with you, he would lend me his car." My dream was answered. Although Daddy said I had to be home 15 minutes after the banquet ended, I suspected that would provide enough time for some quick kisses before the last stretch where my dad would surely watch our approach to the house.

I was completely uneducated in the intimacy game. When I was probably 14 or 15 I was with a bunch of kids my age at a summer outing with my brothers when a boy I didn't even know grabbed me and bestowed my first kiss. It was not completely gross, and I admit I looked forward to the time when someone I liked would find me that attractive. I don't know if my first crush was enamored, probably wasn't, but a new student, Evelyn Jones, showed us pictures of her classmates, and when I saw the picture of of a blond curly headed boy named Wilbur Eubanks, I was bowled over. Evelyn said, "Daddy is letting me have a party for my 16th birthday, and I will invite him." At the party we played kissing games. I thought it was completely insane. A kiss should really mean something.

All of us had numbers. If your number was called you went outside behind the chimney where you were kissed, I managed to avoid all callers, including Evelyn's father ( so gross! ), by telling them I didn't play kissing games, but when Wilbur called my number, I am sure he did not even see who I was in the dark. I stood still with my arms crossed and he planted one right on my tightly closed lips and told me another number to fetch!

After that night I managed to avoid parties. Boys avoided me pretty much, too. I was excited to see S.M. when Chris and Ellen came home with me that fall. The next week Chris got a letter from S.M. (James Grady) telling her he had fallen completely head over heels in love with her and wanted to come to see her at college immediately. She never answered his letter, and when i saw him about a year later he was very sheepish. That was not the end of Sugar Man, nor Wilbur who showed up at the end of my senior year in high school. He was a new member of the Church and at a big dance in Wilmington he did not seem to remember ever having seen me before. I did not let him know I was Evelyn Jones friend or classmate, and neither of us ever mentioned the party. I am sure he did not remember the kissing game. Wilbur was a very gifted pianist, untrained, but a fine classical artist who ended up with his own radio program every Sunday afternboon when he played requests. He always played a piece for me, Doris,the cute freshman girl at East Carolina. He went to Atlantic Christian College, and occasionally took a bus to see me on weekends to take me to a special dance. We were good friends, but not the kissing kind. We both enjoyed our church connection and there was no apology needed when he showed up at a conference with a fiance. Se la vie!!

James didn't show up again until my senior year at East Carolina. That was very interesting. Many boys in between. but I knew I was waiting for somebody really special.