Harold Edward Johnson

This one may take a few posts.
 As I related earlier, I met Harold at the skating rink on Saturday dance night. He was with Jan; they were very close friends.  There was a fairly overweight guy there that night asking girls to dance. When they'd turn him down, Harold would come right behind him asking the same girl to dance with him; they almost always did. When the guy asked me, I politely refused and Harold came up right behind him and asked me; I refused him too. I thought ' if I dance with anybody it will be Jan'.

  But, I'll never forget what Harold had on that night; white buckskin shoes, black peg leg pants, black shirt, pink tie and white sport coat. Obviously he impressed me a little for me to remember what he was wearing . I thought he was pretty cool; he knew he was cool.
 He worked part-time jobs after school and the money he earned was used for clothes and gas for his Dad's car (he dated many girls); he needed gas money for dates.
 Anyway, somehow or other Jan ended up asking me out and gave me his class ring. We dated for three months and always doubling with Harold and (most of the time) my friend Pat.  The sweetheart dance came around at school and I knew that Jan and I were going; but I'd also heard through the school grapevine that he was going to break up with me. I decided that night, that I'd break it off with him before he had the chance. And I did, right after he took me home from the dance. The next day (Sunday), Harold called and asked me for a date for that night. We had become friends during the double-dating period. I said 'yes' and we ended up going steady for the next eleven months. (Mother said, ' I just knew he was waiting for you and Jan to break up.)  For the next eleven months we'd date, break up, get back together..etc. I remember one afternoon I got so mad at him that I threw his class ring across four lanes of traffic, but he found it and I took it back two days later. On my sixteenth birthday, he took me out for a special evening then halfway through, he said he was going to take me back home. I was so mad that when he let me out at the house, I threw my purse so hard that it landed on the roof. Harold left. A friend of mine came out climbed on the roof and retrieved it. When I went inside, ( all blown up like a jellyfish), a surprise birthday party was awaiting me. I was so embarrassed.  Harold came back and joined the party. Man I was good at throwing things.
  On our last Saturday night date we decided that we'd get married the next day. On Sunday after church, we took his Dad's car, went to Dillon SC, and eloped on January 15th 1956 (a secret marriage.)  After church that night, he took me home and I kept my mouth shut....sorta.  I told my friend Pat.
  At school the next day, I told my very best friends what we had done. I continued school for the week and on Friday night the family drove to Asheville to spend the weekend.  After dinner on Saturday night, a guy I knew there came over to the house, I had liked him a lot before I started dating Harold. He, Chap and I were sitting in the breakfast nook and the grownups were in the living room. This guy, Winston, asked me to go out with him and it surprised me. Chap whispered, 'she can't, she's married'.
 We got back to Raleigh on Sunday night and on Monday when Harold brought me home from school, Mother was at home, which was unusual.  She called me in her room where she was laying down, I went in and she said, ' I can't believe you have done this. Did you have to do this?'  She was distraught. My friend Pat had told her. When Daddy found out, he was livid..!!

  Me, on Easter after Harold and I started going out together. Taken at Aunt Berta's. OMGosh, that Hat!!!
Harold gave me the corsage.