Sophomore and Junior

Concentrating on being the most productive student in the home economics program brought recognition. Everyone seemed to realize that I was making the best of every little opportunity, and my limited wardrobe didn't bother me, but I was given an opportunity to improve my circumstances. The medical assn. of the area in NC purchased a large estate on the river not too far from Swansboro. One of the doctors approached my department head for the names of two girls with food prep experience to work at the place for the summer. Members who bought a stake in the property could schedule a week at the resort for their families with the dad joining them for the weekend. I was recommended, and for a few days was in heaven imagining how much fun it would be to prepare the meals, maybe pick up a little money baby sitting a few hours. My work at the health center making meals for patients got me the job. I knew Daddy would object because they needed me for the work in the tobacco, but I had it all figured out. i went home the first chance I had and explained that since I would have one day a week off, I would take my day off on "barn day", the one day when I would really be needed on the farm. One of the boys could come for me the night before and I would work the 8 or 9 barn days, and would not have to ask him for any money for the next school year. Then came the final decision, "I will not allow you to be in a place like that. You just don't know what could happen to you. Those doctors all get drunk on the weekend. You would have to serve liquor. Just forget it." I was not quite 21, and I sometimes wish I had broken the ties at that time, but Mama advised me to do as he asked. I hated to have to go down town and tell the people who were counting on me that my dad would not permit me to go. They could not believe he would let me turn down such a good opportunity. The girl who replaced me brought home $700 for her work.

I was bitter for a while, and determined I would not even go home my last summer. At the end of the summer Daddy told me I could order some fabric from the sears catalog to make a couple of dresses. That was my pay for the whole summer. I don't think I even left the farm, no church, no contact with other young people other than my brothers.

At the end of my junior year I announced that I had enough credits to graduate in March, if I could go to summer school. "We need you on the farm", was met with my next announcement that my grades were high enough I could borrow the money to finish college, but if I did not go to summer school, I could not possibly graduate in June. Early graduation was made possible by taking an extra class each summer term. The home management class was usually taught in the regular semester, and no student could hold down a part time job while living in the home management house. By electing to take it first summer term, I only missed six weeks of work in the health center, which gave me my meal tickets. So, with taking an extra class each term I was able to accumulate 24 quarter hours that summer. All I had left was student teaching in the fall and a final quarter after Christmas where I picked up an extra class. I was finally independent !

There was a very short sort of romance the fall of my junior year. I had met two boys down in Tabor City where Chris and Ellen lived, brothers, Bobby and Albert (Ab) Wright. They both joined the marines and were stationed at Le Jeune right near Swansboro, so Ab took a bus one Sunday and came to spend the day. He mentioned that sometime he and Bobby would like to come up to East Carolina to a dance when a big band was playing. He wrote that four of them were going to drive up, and asked if the other girls and I would buy the tickets to save on having to buy them at the door. With expensive Tommy Dorsey tickets on our hands we learned the base was on alert and the boys couldn't come. There was nothing left to do but go early and try to unload them on someone who wanted a bargain at the door. I remember that it was very easy to get my money back, but there were lots of girls going alone so I sat on the side lines not prepared to dance at all. Immediately a very tall handsome guy asked me to dance. I was surprised because there were so many really pretty girls he might have asked. His name was Charles Lloft from New Jersey and he had just graduated from Bucknell in engineering. He had just come to Greenville to supervise the installation of a new turbine in the power plant. We hit it off immediately, and at intermission he asked me to show him around campus. As we walked by the lane leading back to the dance he showed me his new car, the very first Ford sold after the war. I was so impressed! We sat in his car and talked until the dorm had closed. I was petrified of being locked out, but Chris knew I would never be late on purpose and was waiting with the window up for me to ask her to open the back door.

We had both worked very hard to go to college. He was from a poor family, too. His mother was barely literate and he was embarrassed of her handwriting, but she wrote him every week. Before we realized how late it was, he discovered I knew nothing about his passion, football, and invited me to go to Raleigh to a game in a couple of weeks. We went to a dinner where he ate lobster and being a fish hater I ate spaghetti. I discovered that I had very little interest in football, even with a varsity player explaining it to me. He wanted to meet my family and thought it very peculiar that I would not arrange it. I knew a neighbor from Swansboro who was a student at East Carolina. I introduced him and his wife. They invited us to their apartment to play cards one evening. I didn't know how to play cards either! But I did convince him that I did have parents and that Daddy would no longer support me if he knew I was dating someone. Then Charles asked me, "What happened to the guy who stood you up the night at the dance?" Then I knew why he had asked me to dance. He felt sorry for me! I think that was our last date. He went home for his best friend's wedding the next weekend and every weekend after that he went home for something; must have met someone interesting at the wedding!

The teacher in my clothing class felt sorry for me. She had become very angry with me for bringing a radio to listen to while we had a make-up session in the lab on Saturday. We didn't think she was going to be there, said she wouldn't, but when she walked in and heard that "modern" music she was shaking all over. She called me in her office and told me how much she detested it. Supervising a dance when it was her turn put her in bed for the weekend. I was very humble. The next week she called me in to give me a suitcase full of old fashioned clothes she didn't wear any more, saying she knew I could remodel them for myself. Can't remember what I did with them, but I didn't ever wear them. My friends thought it was a big insult. They liked me for myself, not my wardrobe. I really didn't have time to make them over with the three jobs I had, and all my school work.

There was one other guy who was interested in me that year. It was the strangest experience of my whole time in college. When I went to work one afternoon, Mrs. Cherry met me at the front door. Before I went in she said to wait, there was someone in there to see me, and she thought she should warn me. I did not recognize him at first. It was a distant cousin I had seen a few times at church when I was still in high school, Mr. Claude Stroud. I thought he was at least 80 then, and had a wife who looked 100 and wore an old fashioned bonnet tied under the chin.

He immediately stood, and taking me by the hand, led me to the couch in the waiting room where he proceeded to tell me about the death of his wife and his need to get married again. He had come to court me! I tried to be very emphatic in refusing his attentions, told him I had a lot of work to do, wished him well and led him to the door. The nurses could hardly believe it, and neither could I!