January 7: I first saw Edgar dancing at the Jolly Fox. Once we started dating, though, it seemed he had forgotten how. He became disinterested in going anywhere much at all, in fact. Our dates were spent at friend’s homes or at McDonald’s and Krystal. If we weren’t out with friends, we usually watched TV at his apartment or mine. I was 23, and he was 25, and he was crushed when I didn’t want his high school ring to seal our commitment. It would have required that wax stuffing for me to wear it, and besides, we had both graduated college. I should have been more sensitive since the art on his apartment walls consisted of Steve McQueen and Dirty Harry posters, but he had an expensive furnished apartment, a new Datsun, and a new Honda 350, so was way above my economic standing at the time. I thought we were both much too sophisticated for me to sport his class ring, and it didn’t dawn on me that maybe the new vehicles and higher rent might have something to do with where we went when we went out. The first time marriage was mentioned, he said, “If I asked you to marry me, what would you say?” I knew enough to not answer that one. I knew that if I said that I would say “yes,” then he would say something like “Well, maybe I’ll ask you someday,” and if I answered with a “no,” he would say, “Who says I would want to ask you?” When he asked me what I would say, I said, “You’ll have to ask me to find out.” He was persistent. I think that conditional question came up about once a week for a couple of months. In the summer of ’74, his sister Vickie was working at Calloway Gardens. Edgar, his brothers Craig, 15, Van, 8, and his mother and I headed up there to visit her for the weekend. I was under the impression that there would be a girls’ room and a boys’ room – two hotel rooms – but once we arrived, one room was dropped and it was decided we could all stay in one room to save money. Edgar did learn his conservative monetary policies somewhere, after all. Mrs. Jarrett also brought her electric skillet and made breakfast in the room, something my parents had never done. I slept with her in one of the double beds, and Edgar and Craig slept in the other. Van stayed on a pallet on the floor. That first morning I awoke to Van’s complaining to his mother, “Mom! Craig’s flipping boogers on me!” I pretended to be asleep awhile so no one would think I had heard him. During the weekend, Edgar and I took out a pedal boat – one of those that two people ride by pedaling like a bicycle. While out on the lake, he actually asked me to marry him. I mean, he said, “Will you marry me?” I said, “yes,” and the engagement began. His version of the story is that I got him out in that boat and wouldn’t let him back to shore until he proposed. He still spun it in his favor. When I returned to our new Creekwood Apartment, I was excited to share this news with my roomie Sheila. She had been chaperoning a Presbyterian Youth Retreat while we were at Calloway and had news of her own; called to the ministry that weekend, she left shortly after for Union Seminary in Richmond, VA to earn a graduate degree in Christian Education. Dr. Barrick is now a pastor at the oldest Presbyterian church in North Carolina. I should have realized something was up when he took me to Villa Gargano for supper -- several steps above McDonald’s. Then, he ordered a bottle of wine, something he had never done. The waiter came with the bottle resting on linen on his arm and poured a little in Edgar’s glass. Edgar looked at him and said, “You can give her some, too.” The waiter looked a little taken aback, but filled my glass. Then, my betrothed asked, “Are you going to give her a whole glass and me just this little bit?” The waiter filled his glass, and left in rather a huff, I thought. It seemed even in Southwest Georgia, diners at that restaurant usually knew to taste and approve the wine. When I told Edgar what was happening, he said, “What’s the point of approving a five-dollar bottle of wine?” We both changed to sweet tea with our meal. My sister married the wine connoisseur; my husband is an expert in other things. Anyway, at the end of the evening, Edgar presented me with a diamond engagement ring that he had chosen and purchased all by himself at Gray Jewelers on the square in Blakely, GA. It was perfect – part yellow and part white gold, and a half carat diamond cut so it looked like a whole one. We set the day for the wedding that night – the anniversary of our blind date. Thirty-eight years later, my son Matt and Kellie married on March 29, too.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 05:16:34 +0000
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