<TITLE>23. Par 219-232</TITLE>L-219 She said, "Promise me this, that you'll go to those people," said, "because they're right." And she said, "Raise my children like that." And I... She said, "I want to tell you something." She said, "I'm dying, but" said "it's... I don't--I don't dread going." Said, "It's--it's beautiful." She said, "The only thing, I hate to leave you, Bill. And I know you got these two little children to raise." She said, "Promise me that--that you'll not stay single and let my children be pulled about from pillar to post." That was a sensible thing for a twenty-one-year-old mother.
And I said, "I can't promise that, Hope."

L-220 She said, "Please promise me." Said, "One thing I want to tell you." Said, "You remember that rifle?" I'm just crazy about guns. And she said, "You wanted to buy that rifle that day and you didn't have enough money to make the down payment."
I said, "Yes."

L-221 She said, "I've been saving my money, my nickels, to try to make that down payment on that rifle for you." She said, "Now, when this is over and you go back home, look up on the duofold... or the folding bed, under that piece of paper on top, and you'll find the money there." She said, "Promise me that you'll buy that rifle."

L-222 You don't know how I felt when I seen that dollar seventy-five cents (in nickels) laying there. I got the rifle.

L-223   And she said, "You remember that time that you were going downtown to buy me a pair of stockings, and we was going to Fort Wayne?"
I said, "Yes."

L-224 I had come in from fishing, and she said... We had to go to Fort Wayne, I had to preach that night. And she said, "You know, I told you, 'There's two different kind.'" One called "chiffon." And what's the other one, rayon? Is that right? Rayon and chiffon. Well, ever which is, chiffon was the best. Is that right? And she said, "Now, you get me some chiffon, the full style." You know that thing that's got that little thing in the back of the stocking, at the top? And I didn't know nothing about women's clothes, so I...

L-225 And I was going down the street and saying, "Chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon," trying to keep thinking of, "chiffon, chiffon, chiffon."
Somebody said, "Hello, Billy!"

L-226 I said, "Oh, hello, hello." "Chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon."

L-227 And I got to the corner and I met Mr. Spon. He said, "Hey, Billy, do you know the perch is biting now over on the side of that last pier?"
I said, "Sure enough, is that right?"
"Yeah."
I thought now, when I left him, "What was that stuff?" I forgot it.

L-228   So Thelma Ford, a girl that I knew, worked at the ten-cent store. And I knowed they sell women's stockings over there, so I went over. I said, "Hi, Thelma."
And she said, "Hi, Billy. How are you? How's Hope?"

L-229 And I said, "Fine." I said, "Thelma, I want a pair of socks for Hope."
She said, "Hope don't want socks."
I said, "Yes, ma'am, she sure does."
Said, "You mean stockings."

L-230 "Oh, sure," I said, "that's what it is." I thought, "Uh-oh, I done showed my ignorance."
And she said, "What kind does she want?"
I thought, "Uh-oh!" I said, "What kind you got?"
She said, "Well, we got rayon."

L-231   I didn't know the difference. Rayon, chiffon, it all sound the same. I said, "That's what I want." She said... I said, "Fix me a pair of them, full style." And she... I got that wrong. What is it? Full fashion. "Full fashion." And so I said, "Fix me a pair of them."

L-232 And when she went to give them to me, they was only about thirty cents, twenty cents or thirty cents, about half price. Well, I said, "Give me two pair of them." See?


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