Northern aggression 2/8/2009 12:31 AM By CORNELIA MURRAY An Aiken Standard Love Stories finalist
I met my husband Bruce in 1961. My best friend, Mary, at Ridge Spring High School had met a boy named Tommy from Aiken. She had a date with him on Friday night. That was the time in history when one had to take a brother or sister along on a date. Mary asked me if her sister could stay with me. She and Tommy were double-dating with a friend of Tommy's and another girl.
By chance the youth at my church were having a party that night. When Mary and Tommy arrived at the church with her sister, I went out to meet them. Mary introduced me to Tommy and his friend, Bruce. As we left the car to walk back into the church, I looked at the car as it was leaving.
Bruce, sitting in the backseat, was looking at me. There was a connection made at the moment. When they came to get Mary's sister, Bruce jumped from the car, ran onto the porch and asked me if I would go out with him. I was a junior in high school and I wasn't allowed to date. Bruce came back the next night, and my father knew a boy was there to see me.
The big problem started when my dad found out Bruce was a Yankee! The North-South war began in my life. I couldn't date, especially a Yankee. I had a part-time job at Dodd's Dime Store in Batesburg. I worked every Saturday. Bruce would drive from Aiken to see me on my 30-minute lunch break. We continued this until my 18th birthday.
That Saturday, he brought me a diamond ring and asked me to marry him. There was no way I could tell my parents. I would wear the ring when he came to see me at the store. We finally had the nerve to ask if we could get married.
"No way" was the profound reply. I had graduated and was working full time. We decided that he would come for me early on Friday in order to get our marriage license. We were going to get married the following Monday, Feb. 18, 1963.
When we arrived at the courthouse in Edgefield, we found I needed a birth certificate. So off to Columbia we went, only to find I wasn't born. Having been born at home, my birth wasn't recorded. In order to get a birth certificate, I had to go back to my parent's house and get all the necessary papers to prove my date of birth.
Bruce parked in the woods while I ran in the house (my parents were working in the fields). I retrieved the papers and returned to Columbia. We obtained the birth certificate and arrived at the Edgefield courthouse just in time to get married. I realized it was time for me to be home from work. We had to go tell my parents. Bruce, being the Yankee he was, told me he would keep the car running while I went in the house to break the news. I went inside and told my father Bruce and I were married. He had a gun and told us to leave and never come back. We left. Times were pretty rough with my parents until our first son was born. What a difference a baby can make! My father finally accepted that Yankee into our family. We have been married 45 years and blessed with two wonderful sons and their wives, and a beautiful daughter and her husband. We have six grandchildren: five boys and one girl. They all have a little Yankee in them.
My father would argue that point, and maybe even get his gun.
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