<TITLE>13. Par 99-105</TITLE>L-99   My daddy calling me a sissy! I said, "Hand me that bottle!" And I pulled that stopper out of the top of it, determined to drink it, and when I started to turn it up, "Whoooossssh!" I handed the bottle back and took off down through the field as hard as I could, crying. Something wouldn't let me do it. See? I could not say I was any good (I was determined to do it), but it's God, grace, amazing grace that kept me from doing those things. I wanted to do them, myself, but He just wouldn't let me do it.

L-100   Later on I found a girl when I was about twenty-two years old, she was a darling. She was a girl that went to church, German Lutheran. Her name was Brumbach, B-r-u-m-b-a-c-h, come from the name of Brumbaugh. And she was a nice girl. She didn't smoke or drink, or--or she didn't dance or anything, a nice girl. I went with her for a little while, and I'd... Then, about twenty-two, I made enough money till I bought me an old Ford, and I... we'd go out on dates together. And so, that time, there was no Lutheran church close, they had moved from Howard Park up there.

L-101   And so they was... a minister, the one that ordained me in the Missionary Baptist church, Doctor Roy Davis. Sister Upshaw, the very one that sent Brother Upshaw over to me, or talked to him about me, Doctor Roy Davis. And so he was preaching, and had the First Baptist church, or the--the... I don't believe it was the First Baptist church, either, it was the Mission-... called the Missionary Baptist church at Jeffersonville. And he was preaching at the place at that time, and we would go to church at night, so... and we'd come back. And I never did join church, but I just liked to go with her. Because the main thought was "going with her," I just might as well be honest.

L-102   So then going with her, and one day I... She was out of a nice family. And I begin to think, "You know, you know, I oughtn't to take that girl's time. It isn't--it isn't right, because she's a nice girl, and I'm poor and--and I..." My daddy had broke down in health, and I--I... There wasn't no way for me to make a living for a girl like that, who had been used to a nice home and rugs on the floor.

L-103   I remember the first rug I ever seen, I didn't know what it was. I walked around the side. I thought it was the prettiest thing I ever seen in my life. "How would they put something like that on the floor?" It was the first rug I had ever seen. It was--it was one of these... I believe it's called "matting rugs." I may have that wrong. Some kind of like "wicker" or something that's laced together, and laying on the floor. Pretty green and red, and big rose worked in the middle of it, you know. It was a pretty thing.

L-104   And so I remember I--I made up my mind that I either had to ask her to marry me, or I must get away and let some good man marry her, somebody that would be good to her, could make her a living and could be kind to her. I could be kind to her, but I--I--I was only making twenty cents an hour. So I couldn't make too much of a living for her. And I... With all the family we had to take care of, and Dad broke down in health, and I had to take care of all them, so I was having a pretty rough time.

L-105   So I thought, "Well, the only thing for me to do is tell her that I--I... she... I--I just won't be back, because I thought too much of her to wreck her life and to let her fool along with me." And then I thought, "If somebody could get a hold of her and marry her, make a lovely home. And maybe if I couldn't have her, I could--I could know that she was happy."


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