Chapter Thirty-One: Frank is courting Pearl in August, 1920.

Editor’s Note: August 1920 brings new events into 15-year-old Pearl’s life. Frank is showing serious romantic interest, which begins, in turn, to be taken seriously by young Pearl. We read Pearl and her family’s humorous and delightful responses to this. One point of clarification: We are seeing Melvin and Jack throughout this narrative. Melvin, who likes to be called “Jack”, is the younger brother of Mama Bettie, from Tennessee. So, he is in his 20s, served in WW I in France, and is near to Frank in age. Jack is sweet on Viola. Enjoy! RAN

I had obtained a small pack-flip camera for selling Cloverine Salve in the Spring of 1920. We eager kids went through the 12-pack of the film shortly, and to our dismay, the snapper switch broke away with no possible method of repair. Frank Noel immediately bought a “brownie” box camera by Kodak- a lifesaver for us! It was probably just as well that my camera failed, as Mama objected to the pictures we snapped of each other, although they were perfectly decent! We never could understand her motives, but we had to abide by her objections. She took the pictures from me, put them in the fire, and burned them, as we had a coal-burning cook stove! We girls were broken-hearted at first, but it suddenly occurred to me that I still had the negatives in safe-keeping, and we could have as many copies of the snapshots as we wished. However, we were hurt by Mama Bettie’s actions. 

Melvin had mentioned one day that he had been in church recently and had heard a song, “Love Lifted Me”. He hadn’t learned the song but remembered it favorably as a religious song. None of us had heard of it. A revival opened in the church where Papa and mama were members. It was in the adjoining school district, some four and one-half miles from our house. Melvin and I rode in Papa’s car with the family while Frank, Viola, and Lona drove Frank’s car. We young people sat together in the congregation. A hymn number was announced and Melvin, alert to the singing, nudged Viola on one side and me on the other, saying, “There’s that song!”  This was our first time hearing the song that would become so popular among hymn-singers in the future; it was “Love Lifted Me”!  

Ed. note: This link is to a current recording of “Love Lifted Me”. It’s still popular 102 years later, apparently! Enjoy. RAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJvo_dsIHQA

The Sunday after the first week of the revival, Frank, Viola, Lona and Ida Mae Bowman were at our house for lunch. I supposed Ida Mae had been a guest of the Noel girls for the night before and had gone to church the next morning for worship. The snapshot beside Frank’s Model T car and the old water barrel beside the well shows us all together except the photographer, who was Frank. In the picture were Billy and Jack, Pearl and Viola, Ida Mae and Lona. We girls all dressed in our crepe de Chine and Georgette, wearing our hats just as any respectable girls would do on a summer Sunday in 1920. 

Ed. note: I am looking for this photograph. 🙂 RAN

   We all went inside where the temperature was several degrees cooler than under the noon-day sun. Everyone was seated in the living room, Jack acting as host to the company of young people, while Papa sat down on the porch with his newspaper to be in the fresh air. I put on a large bib apron to cover my dress and went to the kitchen to help Mama. The chicken was frying on top of the iron range, snap green beans were simmering on the back burner and potatoes were boiling in the pot next to the chicken. Next to the bean pot, we set a pan containing canned corn, seasoned with butter and salt. Pies were resting in the pie safe, but biscuits were to be made and baked in the hot oven. The white table linen was already on the table, so I put the plates and silverware in place and filled the pickle dish. Mama then called me to slice onions for the table, which always set my eyes to watering.

        Finally, lunch was over and Lona and I helped Mama to clear the table and wash the dishes. Food was left sitting on the table with another tablecloth spread over it. There would be enough for supper, and the heat of the day would keep it warm. Supper would be early to allow time for the milking of the cows and feeding the chickens, before time to drive to church services.  

      We young people had plans for the afternoon, so we four girls and two men climbed into Frank Noel’s car and drove four miles to the Electra River Bridge on Red River. This was an outing place for young people in groups as they snapped pictures of each other or strolled along the bridge in pairs.  

        Sometimes young fellows challenged each other to a race. One boy, I talked with at the Chateau Singing, related to me an incident in which he, some 6 feet, 2 inches tall, was challenged by a short guy not more than 5 feet, six inches tall. They agreed on a point on the bridge for a goal, and were moving along quite rapidly, the tall boy just beginning to pull away from the short guy when the short one looked up at the tall fellow and said “Mutt and Jeff”! The tall guy, Albert Kidd, said he started laughing and couldn’t run; George Agee, the short guy, won the race!

         Incidentally, the tall guy, Albert, near my age, had sent me a message through Viola that he wanted a date with me. But I didn’t even ask Papa following the other incident in which harsh words were exchanged between us. I just decided to wait until later.

          But something more challenging than a footrace was about to take place on the Electra River Bridge. As we left home, the seating arrangement was that Jack, Viola, and Ida Mae occupied the back seat of the car, while Frank, the driver, Lona, and I occupied the front seat, with me sitting next to Frank. We arrived at the bridge site and seemed to be the only crowd there. Frank carefully parked the car in the shade of trees, which were plentiful in the area, and all began to get out. About the time I was moving towards the door, Frank put his hand on my arm and asked me to stay in the car. As soon as everyone was out, he put the car in gear and sped out upon the bridge. I looked at him questioningly and asked what we were doing. After driving a few hundred yards down the bridge, he braked the car to a stop, killed the engine, put his arm around me, and said,   “Don’t you know I love you, kid?”

I felt very strange-like we were in a turn-of-the-century movie scene, or something akin to that-so unreal. But, I knew it was real, alright, and it was a thrill of sorts; to hear a man say that he loves me! I began to cry, and so did he. He stroked my left arm and said, 

  “Poor little arms, hands have to chop cotton, pick cotton. Never had a mother to love and care for you!”

He then asked me if I thought I could ever care for him-I shook my head-said I didn’t know and that we had better go back to the others. So Frank Noel put that Model T in the reverse gear and we literally sailed back to the end of the bridge. That’s one trait of character he possessed; he could handle everything and handle it quickly and well! (That was worth something!)

   Once, back with the others, Frank, camera in hand, began to lead the way in exploring the beauty of the growth on either side of the bridge, looking for a scenic background for our snapshots. He snapped a couple of pictures, then handed the camera to Jack but he and Viola were having fun on their own, snapping each other. Frank motioned for the rest of us to line up behind Viola while he stood in the background with his ten-gallon hat raised, as if in a salute! Then we all loaded in and drove onto the bridge where we snapped several more pictures by the bridge banisters, and upon them.  

  We soon returned to our homes, to meet at church that evening. I recall that was the time that only Viola went to church with Frank, so when we started home that evening, Jack asked Papa if he thought he could drive the car home in the dark. Papa said, “yes, if the lights wouldn’t go out!”  Jack told him to use the low gear frequently, as that would cause the lights to burn more brightly! All true, so far as I knew, but Jack laughed as Papa drove away, thinking how he tricked him into letting us two young couples have some time together.

    One night when we came in from the revival, Melvin went into his quarters to prepare his bed. He came rushing back shouting, “Bettie, come here!” Hurrying behind him, Mama wondered what could be so urgent. To her surprise and disgust, their old “kitty” lay smack dab in the middle of the two pillows nursing a litter of kittens! Naturally, there was a bit of cleaning up to be done before Melvin slept the night! The joke went around for days!

       Another evening when Frank and Viola picked Jack and me up to go to revival services, just as we arrived at our house, following the services, a terrific thunderstorm hit! Finally, it had rained so much, that the men doubted if the car could make it up the hill on our access road. So the Noels called Mandy and said they had been invited to spend the night at the Thorntons, so all was well. Jack shared his quarters, the small east bedroom, with Frank. The next morning Frank and Viola went home. As I went in to make the bed in the room, I saw Frank’s tie flung across a mirror. Taking it down, I felt a closeness I hadn’t experienced with this man. I held his tie between my hands and felt a thrill in my relationship with him! (Young girls are silly geese!  I never told this experience before!)

          Jack and I drove Papa’s car, when the older folks were tired, and took Frank and Viola with us to revival services. Frank wasn’t feeling well, as he was nursing a blood boil on his right forearm, so instead of dressing up that night, he wore his khakis with harmonizing necktie and his large white hat. I looked at my date and saw for the very first time how handsome he really was! After church Jack and I drove the car home and sat there in the moonlit night for a few minutes reviewing the events of the evening.

        “Did Frank kiss you?”, he asked out of the blue. “Yes”, I said. Then laughing, he pursed his lips and leaned toward me; I responded, pursed my lips, and leaned toward him. We met in a good “cousinly” or some kind of a friendly kiss, which was thrilling! Then Jack glanced toward the house and exclaimed, “Look, Pete was watching us!”  Scared, I looked, didn’t see Papa or anyone, then he roared with laughter, and so did I!  Oh my! Those were the days! Why couldn’t time just stand still for a while?

But, time marches on! The first of August came and Frank had made arrangements to go to Wichita, Kansas to attend the Bartlett’s Wichita Automobile and Tractor School for six weeks. He had sold the body off his Model T to Jim Green, a cousin living at Hess, Oklahoma, for $75.00; enough money to take him through the training. He was mechanically inclined and following his bout with influenza, which almost cost him his life, he decided to prepare himself for a career easier than farming. 

 We had gone regularly to movies at the Gem Theater in Frederick to see a serial, “Tarzan and the Apes”. This had gone on for three or four Saturday nights. Frank and I, with Viola and Łona, had “dates” in that way, but without any privacy. When we did have a few minutes alone, he began to talk about marriage with things like, “You’re nearly sixteen; that’s old enough to get married, isn’t it?”  Such remarks would horrify me! I would retort with, “No, I can’t get married, I have to go to high school, first.”

     “Well”, he would answer, “if you go off to school, I won’t be here when you get back. I won’t wait for you to go to school!”  “Where will you go?”, I asked. “I don’t know”, he responded, “just ramble like my old daddy did, I guess”. That was a depressing answer, but I was determined at the time. 

After Frank had sold his car body, he still continued to drive his Model T chassis around. He fastened a board atop the gas tank, the chassis did still have a windshield, and he would fly like the wind about the countryside, sometimes to the consternation of the neighbors! He would sail by at (questionable) miles per hour past the Charles Caldwell residence and Mrs. Caldwell would fearfully say, “ That Frank Noel is going to kill himself on that Thing!”  But to top all of this off, Frank and I together with Viola and Lona rode that “thing” to Chateau one night to the Singing. Frank had been borrowing Austin’s car when we kids went with him, but Austin and family had gone for the day, probably to her folks at Davidson, and hadn’t returned when the time came for us to leave. I don’t know whether the Model T chassis had any floor behind the gas tank or not, but the board seat was wide enough for the four of us to sit on. I sat by Frank, facing ahead; Viola and Lona sat back to back with Lona facing the back. As I recall there were bracers on the chassis for Viola and Lona to rest their feet securely, so here we went! Of course, Frank didn’t break any speed limits that evening; he was wise enough for that! But, never a repeat performance!

Papa hadn’t realized that Frank and I were dating, as when Frank and Viola picked Jack and me up, the men would occupy the front seat of the Ford and Viola and I the back seat. When we got up to the road, that is, to the house on the hill, Jack would get out to open the wire gate. Then get into the back seat with Viola and I would get in beside Frank. We never saw anyone around the Bacon place, so none of us were aware that our actions were being watched; until, after some two or three such dates, Lark Bacon could stand it no longer! He knew Pete Thornton didn’t know Pearl was dating this man whose wife had just died last February! So, he asked Papa if he knew! Of course, he didn’t know; whether he had suspected it before, he didn’t say so. He scolded me for not asking his permission, but I had an answer to that! I was afraid he would say, “No”. I was enjoying the freedom that all young girls enjoy;  association with the opposite sex, and we were not doing anything amiss. But, now the secret was out! Would this make any difference in our activities since they all knew?

Ed. note: Suspense. We learn about Frank’s good baritone singing voice in the next episode. And the plot thickens, as to whether Pearl will go to high school or something else. Stay tuned. RAN