1950 Finally it was June and time to graduate. I graduated salutatorian of my class and made one of the speeches at graduation.

Barbara working at the Weirsdale High yearbook team.  She's under the calendar.

Joyce got an engagement ring from Wyndall. Morris kept asking me what I wanted for graduation and I kept hinting for a ring. So a couple of nights before graduation he came in, give me a great big kiss, and put a ring on my finger. I was in heaven. I went in to show it to mom and she said "Well, you're not going to keep it, are you?" Well, I guess I was, after all that hinting for months. After that, all summer I planned budgets, menus, and wrote over and over, (see Barbara's letter from May  29, 1950)

I worked for Daddy all summer and saved as much money as I could from my $10 a week. I bought a few new clothes and flannel pajamas for our wedding night. I day dreamed most of the day and couldn't wait to get married. We planned to get married in September but an unexpected event took place.

I have to go back to when I was 14 or 15 years old and I went down in front of the church and said I wanted to be a missionary. Well Daddy always thought I'd be one and he wanted me to go to Trinity Bible College in Clearwater. He and mom made several trips a year to go to Trinity for meetings and they knew the president, Dr. Watson, real well. Well, Daddy had already enrolled me and right up to the last minute I thought I could get out of it. School was about to start and he and mom said "pack up, we're taking you tomorrow". So there was nothing I could do except obey.

Now Morris didn't know anything about this and he had no telephone at his house so all I could do was write him after I got down there. Well, was he ever mad. He wrote me back and said it was all over (plus a lot more) unless I came back right away. Well, I couldn't eat, sleep or study. All I did was cry and cry. So Dr. Watson and I prayed about it for a week then he called mom and dad and said he thought it was the right thing that I should go home.

Morris at Trinity College to Pick up Barbara

Much to my surprise one rainy afternoon someone called me out on the porch and there was our car out front. I ran out in the rain and hopped in and there was Morris and Mom. Morris and I fell into each others arms and kissed and kissed and I cried and cried. Mom said "That's enough. I guess you can come home and get married."

We made up and made plans to get married. About this time mom and dad moved to Ocala.

September 19 Danny Mixson was born to Sue and Jim.

On weekends we would drive to Gainesville to look for a place to live. Now remember there were no apartment buildings at that time, the only apartments were in old houses around the University and down town, and most of them awful and rent was way too much for what we could afford. He was making $200 a month when we got married.

Anyway, almost every week end I'd end up crying when he left to go home. He'd stay as late as mom and dad would let him on Sunday nights (about 11:00 p.m. Then he had to drive 55 miles home to Flemington)

Betty and Billy's house at 1704 NE 8th Street in 2007

In March of 1950 Betty and Billy got married. They drove to our house in Oklawaha one Friday night and daddy married them. Morris and I were not there as we had a basketball game that night. Now Morris and Billy were good friends and they talked a lot. Billy was working at the Printing Shop at the University at that time. Morris told him all about our problem of wanting to get married and not having enough money for an apartment so Billy asked Betty what she thought about us living with them. They had just bought a small 2 bedroom house on N. E., 8th Street, (they paid $50 down payment on it). They had no furniture in the second bedroom and they said if we wanted to buy a bed we could live with them. We were so happy and of course that's what we did. Morris went to Sears and bought us a bed on credit. We decided on December 1 as our wedding day, because Morris got paid Nov. 30 (he only got paid once a month).

Daddy wasn't preaching at any church at this time but he was holding Youth For Christ meetings in an old theater down town Ocala. He wanted us to get married there but we said no way. So we planned our wedding to be at our house in Ocala.

Mom and I went to Orlando shopping for my wedding dress. It was white wool, high collar, with some gold beads on the front, and with a full skirt. It was a small wedding. Sue was my matron of honor, Charlie Pardee was the best man and daddy married us. A friend of mom and dads from YFC played the piano and the wife sang a couple of songs. My school friend Barbara Duff came and Uncle Bart from Michigan was there. Also Morris's parents. We had a wedding cake and punch. (No one thought to take any pictures, how dumb.)

Morris and Barbara
1950

Oh, I did get cold feet at the last minute. Everyone was there in the living room waiting for me to come out from the bedroom where I was with mom and Sue. All of a sudden my legs wouldn't hold me up. I got so scared I couldn't walk. After a little talk from Mom and Sue I made it out. After the ceremony and refreshments were over Morris and I drove to Gainesville and spent the night in a little cabin on highway 44l (across the street from now the Brown Derby Restaurant). These cabins are no longer there. It was a very, very cold night.

Morris borrowed his boss's car for the night as his car was a piece of junk.

It was a very cold night and I can still remember the wonderful feeling of getting into bed with Morris and snuggling up and getting warm. I have never liked sleeping by myself and after Sue got married and left I hated sleeping by myself. It was a wonderful wedding night. Morris was a wonderful husband.

The next morning we got up and went to a restaurant for breakfast and then over to Betty and Billy's house. (1704 NE 8th St) Morris had brought up my clothes and the few wedding presents we had, (no one had given us a shower). Mom had given us some sheets, blankets, towels etc. Betty and Billy had everything else the house needed, so we did just fine.

Betty was working at McCrorys Store down town so she took me down there Saturday afternoon to see about getting me a job and they hired me to start the next Monday. What a short honeymoon. I started to work for $18 a week and I thought I was rich after working for daddy for $10. I can still remember the first dress I bought with my own money at Jays Dress Shop.

Our first Christmas Billy and Morris bought Betty and me matching satin robes with satin pajamas. Mine was black pj's and a white robe and Betty's was gold. I still have mine. It was so much fun working and being married. We played cards or monopoly almost every night. We bought groceries together ($10 a week) and Betty taught me to cook. We ate a lot of corn beef and Spam. We did the house work together. It only took a few minutes to clean up as we had very little furniture, no carpets and only one small bathroom.

On our day off, we took our clothes to a laundry mat and washed then, then brought them home and hung them up to dry outdoors and ironed the rest of the day. Back then every piece of clothing we owned had to be ironed. Morris's shirts and pants had to be starched first, then ironed. We went to church only a few times that first year we were married. Mom and Dad left Ocala and moved down to Clearwater at Trinity Bible College where Daddy was Dean of the Boys for the year. When they left there they moved back to Atlanta Georgia.

When we got married Betty was pregnant so along about March she quit her job. Betty loves to tell the story of how when she told me she was pregnant I said, "Oh, Morris and I are going to wait a couple of years before we have any children." I was pregnant by Easter and could hardly go to work because I was so sick in the mornings. I had to quit work soon after Easter, l951.