Humor

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I asked for her hand with the motor running

It was New Years day 1958, a beautiful day I might add, and my future brides family had come over from Baton Rouge to Leetown, MS to visit her grand father. I was raised not 5 miles from where he lived and was home for the holidays and had made plans to meet her over there. I had bought a ring, with my mother's help, to present to her that day and to ask her to marry me. I am sure she had a clue of what was going to take place and had prepared herself for the moment.

After lunch I borrowed my dads old pickup truck and drove over to her grandpa's house just to hang out, so to speak. I remember well standing in front of the fireplace in her grandpa's old log cabin just trying to keep warm, with her grandpa setting in his rocking chair next to where I was standing. I noticed that he kept looking at me and then he said "I recognize you now, you're Beedie Lee's boy. I recognize the nose". Let me just reiterate here that all of us full-blood Lees have a pronounced Roman nose, not a big nose mind you, and unfortunately it has been passed on down to some of my children and grand children. We Lees like to call it a "dignified nose". I was picking on my kids one day a couple of years ago and told them they were all adopted. "Sure dad, you picked out 5 little babies with small crooked noses".

After a while somebody suggested that we go visit her aunt and uncle and have a cup of coffee with them. This suited me just fine because I could be alone with my future bride. They lived about 2 miles away and I planned to give her the ring on the way over there. But, as fate would have, Cindy's sister Marilyn also loaded into the old pickup truck for the trip. The others followed in the 9-passenger station wagon that my future father-in-law owned, no doubt to keep an eye on us to make sure no hanky-panky went on. Let me digress here for a moment to fill you in on the situation. Her dad was a Baptist preacher, a Landmark Baptist preacher, an old time Landmark Baptist preacher who put up with nothing when it came to his girls!! "You mess with my girls boy and you will be eating your meals through a straw". Actually, he didn't say that but I could imagine that he would. I like to tell my grandkids now that I couldn't even hold their Maw Maws hand until we had been married 2 months. They get a kick out of that. Now let me continue on with the story.

After we arrived at her Aunt and Uncle's house I turned the pickup around headed in the direction of my parents home at Caesar. The others had unloaded and gone into the house, except Cindy's father, who had went with her uncle to look at his early garden. That was when I took the opportunity to give Cindy the engagement ring. She quickly put it on her finger, stuck her hand in the pocket of the coat I had given her for Christmas and said, "You'll have to ask my dad". That is when my hair stood on ends, which was easy because I wore a flat top at that time. "Go get him, I nervously said to her". She scooted away like a jet plane and was back in a nanosecond with her dad who had a puzzled look on his face. In the meantime I had cranked the truck, put the window half way up, put it in gear with my foot on the clutch and my other foot on the gas pedal just in case I had to make a fast getaway!

Cindy pulled her hand out of the pocket of the coat and showed him the ring. His face turned beet red and he kind of stuttered and asked, "What is this all about". I told him that we wanted to get married. After about 2 seconds that seemed like 2 hours to me he said, "I guess it will be alright". He then explained that he had worked with my dad in his younger years and would be happy to have me in the family. I could then breath easy. The rest is history.

Down through the years the ring I gave her became worn and thin. I finally bought her one that you can actually see the diamond. Our two daughters had an occasion to visit us a few months ago and Cindy took them into our bedroom where she keeps her jewelry and told them to pick out the jewelry they want when she crosses Jordan. Of course this made them cry knowing that their parents were getting on up in the years and would soon leave this world for a better place. My youngest daughter picked out the original engagement and wedding ring. She said she had always wanted it. We took it and had the bands put together and took a diamond from another ring and put on it.

I have never regretted that New Years day in 1958 that I asked for the hand of my bride when I kept the motor running!!

A Fred Lee original!

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