Kay Ellen and me

At Christmas, Emily gave all the families a copy of my posts. She wanted to compile a permanent record of my posts in case the web site changed owners, went out of business, or whatever and my posts couldn't be accessed. As I thanked her for the book I said I wasn't too sure how much Jessica or Cindy would like the posts, but Jessica surprised me said she enjoyed reading them. Then she asked, "I wished you would write some posts about how you and Kay Ellen met and how you decided that you were going to get married." Cindy agreed, so I decided I would do as my daughters-in-law had requested.

As I've often said, "Kay Ellen and I slept together long before we were married." According to Mrs. Caton, an old FBC church nursery worker now long deceased, we shared a nursery bed as babies. The church was growing so fast they had two babies to a bed and the were assigned alphbetically. I was the last of the G's and Kay Ellen was the first of the H's. I have no idea if the story is true, but that's the story Mrs. Kite told me shortly after we announcedd our engagement.

At Youth Camp when I was in the 8th grade I had a dream that I was going to marry Kay Ellen. We weren't in the same Sunday School department, school, or anything. we did nothing together, but I dreamed we were going to get married. I told some of my friends, Verne in particular, about it the next morning when I got up. So, it's not something I made up after we started dating. So, you could say ordained by God that Kay and I would one day marry.

Kay Ellen and I were opposites in a lot of ways. I was an athlete, more interested in basketball and other sports than music and the arts. I was mischievous. I cut up a lot in class, played pranks, ran through the halls, and slid down the banisters. Kay Ellen was cultured, a musician, quiet, and behaved. I was one grade ahead of her so we weren't in the same Sunday School department and we didn't go to the same school. It's a wonder we ever got together.

My first memories of her were in youth choir. She was a pretty, blond-haired girl with a pony tail. She had a nice smile but mostly ignored me and my friends. She'd always sort of look the other way as she walked past. She later claimed it was because she was shy and thought we were making fun of her.

The first time we really talked much was during Youth Camp after my junior year in high school. For some reason she, Martha Sue, and I would get together and talk. We always had a Sadie Hawkins Day when the girls would ask a boy to sit with them at dinner and at the service that night. Martha Sue and Kay Ellen asked me who I wanted to ask me. I told them Jeanne Ann Smith. As it got closer to Thursday night why I wanted her to get Jeanne Ann to ask me and not her. I told her I didn't think she would ever want to ask me. But, she did and she did. and we went to the dinner and service together and started dating when we got home.

Another of Kay Ellen's good friends was Jean Osburn. Her boyfriend was Greg Cagle. We started going on double dates with them. Kay Ellen got passes for Casa Manana from her daddy at the paper and we would go over there and see musicals every other week during the summer. We also went to movies and other stuff. Nothing really special except for the night Greg's car died and we ended up staying out real late. Anyway, we went out together all the time and grew to like one another more and more.

When school started we sort of broke up because we were going to different schools. I didn't think she would want to see Fort Worth Eastern Hills football games and I didn't want to miss them. I also didn't want to go to all the Arlington High games. The tradition then was to buy the girl a mum for every game. That was just too expensive! I did take her to the Arlington - Sam Houston game (and bought a mum). It was the first time the two schools had ever met in football. We doubled with Jean and Greg. They also promised to double with us when Eastern Hills played Sam Houston in basketball. They backed out but I did take Kay Ellen and had one of my best games of the season.

I asked Kay Ellen to go with me to the church Sweethwart Banquet but she turned me down. Instead, she asked Nick Dally to go with her and I went to the I.M. Terrell - L.D. Bell bi-district basketball playoff. As I remember, we essentially had two dates my entire senior year. I didn't go to my prom and started working in the C-J mailroom the last couple of months during the school year. Greg worked there too, so it is possible that we started double dating again during that period. I know we were together again at Youth Camp.

Jessica asked me how I knew that Kay Ellen was the one, and I really don't know. I know I liked her more than any girl I ever dated. I respected her more than any girl I ever dated. And, I simply wanted to date her more than any girl I ever dated. We continued to date throughout the summer.

When I went away to ETBC we agreed that we would both date other people. I had no car, so I couldn't come home on weekends. Plus, I was playing basketball, so I couldn't come home easily. Despite what we said, Kay Ellen got very upset that I went out with another gir the first weekend or so that I was down there.

We dated during the Christmas break. I also got a car a Christmas so I could come home more frequently. Kay Ellen came out to ETBC along with Martha Sue and my parents one weekend to see a game and Sue, Kay, and I drove home to Arlington after the game.

After basketball season was over I started coming home almost every weekend. Toward the middle of the semester I started cutting my Friday classes and coming home on Thursday. That continued until my History professor told me "one more absence and you flunk," no matter that my grades were in the 90's.

One of the classes I took the first semster was an Appreciation of the Arts. It was supposed to cover music, paintings, sculptures, etc., but the guy who taught it said he didn't know anything about paintings and sculptures and we were just going to do music. I took the class in part to learn more about classical music so I could relate more to KLN. I learned that the three B's of music weren't the Beatles, Beach Boys, and the Byrds but were instead Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. I learned to recognize the name of the peice and composer simply by hearing small cuts of the piece. It was the hardest class I took my entire college career. I made a C, but I still can recognize Dvorak by his slashing style. The course compared to a Music History class required of music majors.

I knew while I was ar ETBC that Kay Ellen and I would one day get married. I also recognized that ETBC had little to offer me academically. You went to ETBC to be a preacher or a teacher. I wasn't going to be a preacher and I didn't think Kay Ellen would want to be a teacher/coach's wife, so I decide to come back to UTA. I later learned that KLN was prepared to go to ETBC to be in school with me.

We started talking about marriage during this time and I asked her to marry me around Christmas of my junior year. She said "yes" but I had to ask her daddy. I kinda wondered why I had to ask him, I wasn't marrying him, but I did it anyway. We got married in June 1971 after my junior year.

I had started working full time in the accounting offices of the Citizen-Journal in February before we got married. I made a whole $2.00 and hour. Kay Ellen had a work scholarship that paid her tuition and a bi-weekly paycheck for accompanying some of the UTA choirs. She was taking 20+ hours a semester so she could graduate early. One semester she registered for 24 hours but they said she could only take 21. She had to "drop" one of the classes she was being paid for. So, she was there and played for the choir anyway, but didn't get the academic credit. We both graduated in December 1972.

While I had graduated with honors from high school, it wasn't so in college. I made lots of B's and C's. Meanwhile, KLN who had not graduated from high school with honors did so in college.