For a reason I do not know, a tune came into my mind this morning. Deep Purple. It was popular in the early 1940's. When I was sixteen I had been invited to a party given by two sisters whose father was a dentist in our small southeastern town in Kentucky.
At that party was a young man, quite handsome, the son of a doctor in a neighboring town. He played the trumpet and for some reason had brought it along. I had never met him before this evening. I am sure he meant well but for some reason he targeted me with his music. Getting quite close to my face he proceeded to play "Deep Purple". I winced and edged away, for he was entirely too close with a trumpet sounding so close to my ear. Looking back on this incident he was just being obnoxious as boys will be toward young ladies when both are in their teen years.
I do not recall the next time I saw this young man but he had a car and could come and go as he pleased, sometimes he had his younger brother with him. He would come to my house and do all sorts of gymnastics with his little brother, picking him up and tossing him into the air. He would just show up at my house and we began a friendship which lasted for quite a few years.
He was an active boy scout and was friends with the man who kept the boy scout camp, which was located between his town and mine. We went there on numerous occasions and he would visit with his friend who was like a family member. I came to know the camp through him and when I went out with him it often was a visit to this camp. There was a stone dam holding back a lovely lake which the scouts put to good use. We would walk around the lake, take pictures and enjoy being out in nature.
One day when we were walking there through the trees a huge spider appeared in front of us. My friend picked up a rock and with deadly aim hit the spider. That was the end of the spider, but her progeny, at least 100 in number fled in all directions. Now, that was a sight to remember. I doubt he knew and I certainly did not, that the spider carried her young on her back, thus the "fat" appearance.
When I left to go to college in central Kentucky, my friend went to a college in a nearby town. It was in Berea Ky. and was called "Berea". It is a world famous college which has a work program. You must work if you attend Berea. During this time I continued to see him as he would drive home to visit his family and stop by my college, pick me up in his A model ford and drive me to visit my family also.
Once he came by to see me and brought me a corsage of pink camellias. I do not remember the occasion but I do remember wearing them on a black dress which had a scoop neckline with a ruffle around it. No doubt my mother had made it for me as she made most of my clothes. I have loved camellias since that time. It was my first introduction to them.
On one of his visits to the college we went strolling through the town of Richmond. The streets were lined with elegant old homes which invariably had large trees in front with sprawling branches extending out over the sidewalks. My friend was in a "poetry" mood and he was extolling the words of some poem along with arm gestures. Just as he was eloquently saying "Oh, bird, speak to me", his arm was extended upward. At that moment a bird perched up in the tree responded in bird like fashion, right in front of us. It could never have been timed as perfectly by any movie producer. We both were laughing so hard we had to sit down right there on the sidewalk and laugh it out !!
About that time he was inducted into the army and worked as a medic. They put him right to work allowing him to assist in some surgeries. Once he proudly gave me a large picture taken during surgery and pointed out which hands were his assisting. It was all good experience for him as he went on to become a surgeon, distinguishing himself as one of the first doctors to reattach a hand lost in an accident.
Looking back on this time, it was a great, wholesome friendship. When it came to marriage we both chose other mates, but we were friends at a time when courting was innocent and casual and helped to prepare us both for a lasting bond with someone else.
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