Skip to main content

FALL HAYRIDE

 It was September 14, 1957, a beautiful early fall Saturday night.  I was so excited.  This would be my first date with Milan Hart. 


 My Grandma Dame was an active member of the local Rebekah Lodge and at this point in time, the Lodge had organized a  chapter of Theta Rho which was a girls’ club affiliated with the Independent Order of Oddfellows and our first big event was a hayride and I had invited Milan, whom I knew only from church, to go with me.  


He was very handsome, with dark brown hair and beautiful chocolate brown eyes, and we were so young.  I had turned 14 in August and he was still a month away from his 14th birthday in October.  His mother was having a hard time with this.  He was the oldest of her five children, but was always her “little boy” and she was not happy with the thought of sharing him with me.  But she had known my family for years.  The two families of “Hawks” and “Jennings” all grew up in the Flatwoods/Brice area, Brice being another name for Bennett Spring in the early days.  So that helped the situation.


The details of this hayride were printed in the Lebanon newspaper because even then I was writing for the church and social pages.  I kept the clipping because I have kept in a huge pile of scrapbooks everything I have ever written, and Milan, always the romantic one, eventually matted and framed it for me as a reminder of our first date.


According to the clipping we had a wiener roast at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Butler, then we all piled on to a truck donated by the T.H. Rogers Lumber Company, and driven by Orval Smart, for the hayride.  Mr. and Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Smart came  along as chaperones because we were such a wild bunch of kids as you can tell by the guest list below.


Boys attending included Donald and David Pearcy, Mike Brown, Ivan Eilenstine, “Sonny” Kelly, Bill Bauer, Dale Hite, Jerry O’Quinn, Jimmy Bohannon (yes THE Jim Bohannon, host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show on Westwood One) Jimmy McClure, and of course Milan Hart.


Theta Rho girls who attended were Martha Pickens, Mary Jones, Judy Jones, Wanda Stewart, Carol Fields, Wilma Stewart, Kay Aldridge, Donna Huitt, Diane Cowden, Billy Lopeman, Georgia Justice, Bonnie Eilenstine, Janet Davis, Pat Monnersmith, Betty Brown, and me.


I have purposely not paired them up as I did in the original column.  Even though it has been 61 years I would not want to fan the flames of jealousy just in case one of the attendees might say “I never knew you dated HIM” or “You never told  me you went to a hayride with HER.”


© Joan Rowden Hart 2017
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

ANNIE, THE CAT'S MEOW

  I first met Annie back in February 2004 after Milan told me to let him know what I wanted for for Valentine’s Day and he promised would get it for me no matter what it was. He has often joked that he should have have put some conditions on that. But he didn’t, and so I headed straight to the Humane Society animal shelter. It had been two long years since we had put our beloved Maine Coon cat to sleep, a big pile of what appeared to be nothing but fur, but had a huge heart hidden inside. We had named him Ollie in honor of Col. Oliver North who was our news hero at the time. I entered the cat compound at the Humane Society. There were only two cats inside, a brown tabby who ran to the other side of the pen away from me, and a little black and white girl who came running over to me and when I picked her up, she snuggled her head under my chin and began to purr. It was love at first sight. She was new there and they had not given her a name so I called her Annie. She was alway...
Post a Comment
Read more

FELINE GHOSTS

FELINE GHOSTS... Feeling ghosts around me today Shadows of cats I have known Feline ghosts, I call them, Cats who have made this their home. Sometimes I feel the gentleness Of soft fur nestled close in my arms And it seems I can hear the soft purring Of remembered kitty cat charms I see them move through the shadows Just a glimpse, then out of my sight Sometimes it’s the white tail tipping That I see in the dark of the night The movements are quiet and fleeting I see them at nighttime and day Just figments of my imagination Grayson, Annie, or Ollie at play. They knew this house was their castle They reigned in each room where they played They slept when they wanted and ate all they could Feline memories stay close, they don’t fade. It’s autumn that I really miss them When hickory nuts start to fall I can see kitty faces so precious In the windows that line up my wall The hickory tree looks in the windows As squirrels ...
Post a Comment
Read more