<TITLE>14. Par 106-118</TITLE>L-106 And so I thought, "But I--I just--I just can't give her up!" And I--I was in an awful shape. And day after day I'd think about it. So I was too bashful to ask her to marry me. Every night I'd make up my mind, "I'm going to ask her." And, when I, uh, what is that, butterflies, or something you get in your...? All you brethren out there probably had the same experience along that. And a real funny feeling, my face would get hot. I--I didn't know. I couldn't ask her.

L-107 So I guess you wonder how I ever got married. You know what? I wrote her a letter and asked her. And so her... Now, it wasn't "dear Miss," it was a little more (you know) on the love side than that. It was just not a--an agreement, it was... I--I wrote it up, best I could.

L-108   And I was a little afraid of her mother. Her mother was... she was kind of rough. And, but her father was a gentle old Dutchman, just a fine old fellow. He was an organizer of the brotherhood, the trainmen, on the railroad, making about five hundred dollars a month in them times. And me making twenty cents an hour, to marry his daughter. Uh! I knowed that would never work. And her mother was very... Now, she's a nice lady. And she--she was kind of one of these high societies, you know, and prissy like, you know, and so she didn't have much use for me anyhow. I was just an old plain sassafras country boy, and she thought Hope ought to go with a little better class of boy, and I--I--I think she was right. And so... But I--I didn't think it then.

L-109   So I thought, "Well, now, I don't know how. I--I can't ask her daddy, and I--I'm sure not going to ask her mother. And so I got to ask her first." So I wrote me a letter. And that morning on the road to work, I dropped it in the mailbox. The mail... We was going to church Wednesday night, and that was on Monday morning. I tried all day Sunday to tell her that I wanted to get married, and I just couldn't get up enough nerve.

L-110 So then I dropped it in the mailbox. And on at work that day I happened to think, "What if her mother got a hold of that letter?" Oh, my! Then I knowed I was ruined if--if she ever got a hold of it, 'cause she didn't care too much about me. Well, I was just sweating it out.

L-111   And that Wednesday night when I come, oh, my, I thought, "How am I going to go up there? If her mother got a hold of that letter she'll really work me over, so I hope she got it." I addressed it to "Hope." That was her name, Hope. And so I said, "I'll just write it out here to Hope." And so... And I thought maybe she might have not have got a hold of it.

L-112 So I knowed better than to stop outside and blow the horn for her to come out. Oh, my! And any boy that hasn't got nerve enough to walk up to the house and knock on the door and ask for the girl, ain't got no business being out with her anyhow. That's exactly right. That's so silly. That's cheap.

L-113   And so I stopped my old Ford, you know, and I had it all shined up. And so I went up and knocked at the door. Mercy, her mother come to the door! I couldn't hardly catch my breath, I said, "How--how--how do you do, Mrs. Brumbach?" Yeah.

L-114 She said, "How do you do, William."
I thought, "Uh-oh, 'William'!"
And--and she said, "Will you step in?"

L-115 I said, "Thank you." I stepped inside the door. I said, "Is Hope just about ready?"

L-116 And just then here come Hope skipping through the house, just a girl about sixteen. And she said, "Hi, Billy!"

L-117 And I said, "Hi, Hope." And I said, "You about ready for church?"
She said, "Just in a minute."

L-118 I thought, "Oh, my! She never got it. She never got it. Good, good, good. Hope never got it either, so it'll be all right, 'cause she'd have named it to me." So I felt pretty fair.


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