Franklin

Since he was introduced to me as Franklin I'll refer to him by that name. His family and city and school mates never called him Frank, but after he moved to the farm everyone called him Frank, so I got used to both but always called him Franklin!

We met on a sort of blind date through mutual friends: Lee, who he knew from grade school and grew up in the same neighborhood, and Leota, who went to Gards at the same time as me where we got acquainted and became good friends. Lee and Leota had been dating for a while so they were our "match-makers" more or less. Lee didn't have a car at that time, so maybe there was an ulterior motive in there somewhere... If so that was not a bad thing to do as it turned out. Leota asked me (this was in December) if I would like to go out with this friend of Lee’s. She described him as tall and a good guy and kinda bashful and good-lookin'.

They had already told him about me, so plans were that Leota and I would meet them downtown (we'd been shopping at the dime store that day) in front of Hirsch Brothers Dry Goods Store. It was just a short distance from where I was living. All went OK as we had a certain time set to meet the guys who would be in Franklin's Model A Ford Roadster and we were going to a movie, "Little Annie Roonie", which was showing at the Missouri Theater. Well, we girls were johnnie-on-the-spot timewise, but the boys were not! We waited at least five minutes, and it was a cold evening. I was getting cold standing out there, so I told Leota that she could wait if she wanted to but I was going home. Just as I had that out of my mouth, here they came.

After the movie we went home. Franklin took me to the door. He had mentioned that he had a headache and also that he and some friends who had been duck hunting on a place across the Missouri River a few days and had just been back a day or two. He mentioned that he'd been up to their farm helping shingle the barn which had been damaged by a tornado. I don't remember that he asked for another date.

A week or so after that Leota told me that Franklin was very ill and that he had Typhoid Fever and was running a high fever. I heard later that he'd drank some river water when they were stranded in a snow storm. He recovered after a long spell and was able to get up and walk about. He was craving some solid food as he had been on a liquid diet. I have forgotten the details, but they asked the doctor what he could have but he was given too much of something by the nurse who was helping take care of him. He had a setback and almost died. All told it was six months before he fully recovered.

I didn't see him until the following June after our first date! He had asked Leota about me. I sent him a card while he was recovering (Leota told me that I should). However, I think he had a girlfriend at that time or maybe they had "broke up" already!

He did call and ask me for a date the next spring or summer. We went to movies, went riding on Sunday afternoons thru the boulevards, double dated with other couples, went to the museums, spent some time at Krug Park for special events. On one date he mentioned something about not having any brothers, only one sister and asked about mine, how many. When I answered, I said "O, about a dozen!” He seemed a bit shocked and asked "Really?" We didn't eat out together much. Guess his paper-boy money didn't allow for that. After I left Mrs. M's and went to the Pitmans, I was allowed to invite him to come there as if it were my home. In fact Mrs. Pitman let me cook a meal and invite Franklin. By this time we were dating about once a week (He had moved to the farm).

The Pitmans had biscuits for breakfast often. I did a lot of the cooking including making the biscuits. Usually there were some left over, so they gave them to Franklin for his dog, Yakama. After a long time Franklin told me that he ate most of them himself!

After his recovery and before he moved to the farm, he decided to get some baby chicks. He built a pen and was doing great until they grew big enough to fly over the fence and into Mrs. Walker's flowerbed. He clipped their wings, which helped for a while, but the final straw was when two or three roosters got out and scratched and pecked Mrs. Walker’s flowers up pretty badly. That’s when he moved to the farm I think.

The chicks grew into hens and Franklin had eggs to sell at the little Wyeth Store near by. When the Pitman's learned that he had fresh country eggs to sell they offered a little more. He began to bring them when he came to see me. He told me that I could get the money and save it so we could use it to buy things. We had $15.00 saved up when it was said and done.

I got ahead of my horses again as most of this happened after he asked me to marry him. We were just riding along in his Roadster, and he mentioned that he was thinking of asking me if I would marry him. It wasn't very long after that when he came to the door. He was in his overalls and work jacket looking like a regular ole farmer. He reached in his pocket and handed me a little box with a beautiful ring. No wining or dining, but it worked just the same! I accepted! He then wanted to ask my dad for my heart and hand (this isn't done much any more that I know about, but was the proper thing then). I think dad said something like “Gladys is a pretty good judge of character” and I can't remember what else was said.

I think I knew that he was the one one Sunday afternoon when we had driven out to Wyeth Hill overlooking the Missouri River. It’s somewhat like the last ride we had shortly before he died when we went for a car ride over by Amazonia to watch the Missouri River and eat a little lunch we'd bought at the roadside store. We just sat and watched the river flowing peacefully downstream.

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