Mrs. nelson lived across the street from us when I was growing up when one day she called Mom and asked her if I could come over and play with her granddaughter who was visiting. Mom said yes and whenever Jane came to visit I would go over to play with her.

On July 10th, 1959 (as noted in Mom’s diary) I was over at Mrs. Nelson’s house playing with Jane when Mom sent David over to get me for lunch. It had started raining as we left Mrs. Nelson’s house and David ran past me and cut me off and I fell in the street. Well, when I got home I was crying and my knee was bleeding. Mom looked at it and said I needed stitches. I said no and ran out of the house to hide. Larry told me that the Doctor used a big needle to sew him up, he had stitches the day before when he fell at Magnesia Springs so I believed him. They finally got me in the car and off we went to the Doctor. I was thankful afterwards because I hated the cold water at Glen Springs where we were taking swimming lessons. I broke my arm later that summer so I never had to take swimming lessons at Glen Springs. Finally learned to swim in Lake Swan where Grandma and Grandpa Junior rented a lake house. Nice warm lake water!

Mrs. Nelson’s granddaughter was Jane Benyo who in 1974 married Tom Petty and had two daughters with him. Jane told mutual friend Stevie Nicks that she met Petty at "the age of seventeen". Nicks misheard Benyo's North Florida accent, inspiring the title of her song "Edge of Seventeen". According to Nicks, the title came from a conversation she had with Jane, about the couple's first meeting. Jane said they met "at the age of seventeen", but Jane's strong Southern accent made it sound like "edge of seventeen" to Nicks. She liked the sound of the phrase so much that she told Jane she would write a song for it and give her credit for the inspiration.

 Petty and Jane divorced in 1996.

Edge of Seventeen

He was no more (he was no more)
Than a baby then
Well, he seemed broken-hearted
Something within him

But the moment that I first laid
Eyes on him
All alone, on the edge of 17

                                              Stevie Nicks

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