Kelley's Brown Swiss - How I Met My Wife.
How I Met My Wife
It was spring of 1967 and I was a young man before my sixteenth year and shy especially around girls. I was at the local skating rink in another town minding my own business just skating around and around learning how to skate when out of the blue this little girl came whizzing by me and said "Hi. You're Joe Kelley, ain't you?"
I stuttered back the next time she came around " Y-y-y-yes". And she raced away again. I was just learning and not real sure on my feet yet and she kept racing past me.
She once again slowed down and shouted "Hi. My name's Glinda Mayfield". Then hurried up and sped away once more.
This local skating rink had different sessions interspersed with general skating. Some of the special short session were boys only, girls only, speed skating, backwards skating and couples only. Shortly there was a couples only session. I mustered up the best nerve I had and slowly skated over to the girl and said " Wo-wo-wo-would you like to skate with me?" She said "Yes". And so we began our first skate together.
I found out that she was thirteen. From that moment on we were an item. We went steady and got engaged shortly before I joined the Navy in March '70. We broke up during my time in boot camp but got back together during my two week leave following basic training and there we established a pattern - breaking up while I was gone and getting back together during the short times I was home. I was discharged from the Navy in March '74 but during my last year and a half I had been overseas for the entire period and she had moved to Colorado to be with her brothers and sisters. I tried calling her several times but she usually refused to speak to me. Finally her brother came back to Missouri for the 4th of July '74 for a visit, stayed about a week and we spent much time together. When he returned to Colorado I called out there once again and she answered the phone and this time she talked to me. I and another friend visited Colorado the next week for the sole purpose of bringing her home. We spent one week together under my Grandparents roof when a cousin and dear friend came over and chewed us out for living as we were and advised us to get married. We talked about marriage for a day and then got up, milked, cleaned up and traveled to Miami, OK to get married. We were married in "Vern's Marriage Parlor" on July 22, 1974 after a long tumultuous seven year courtship. We had to hurry and return home for evening milking.
I never had any desire to spend my life with anyone else and we have been together these 33 years all because we met at the local skating rink in Mountain Grove, MO.
Cheerily
IJK
Sweet
Untitled Comment
How interesting! What's brought about Glinda's change of heart? I had to laugh the way you fit a wedding in amongst your chores for the day. It reminds me of a Pearl Buck story where a Chinese peasant woman lays down her hoe, goes in the house, pops out her baby, then goes back out to continue hoeing...or something like that. I could never be that organized. lol
Thanks for the comments
Cheerily
IJK