My friendship with Corky began when I was bused from our farm into town to join the thirty-plus seventh graders in the newly created Durand Junior High School. When I was a sophomore, I started dating the guy who has been my husband for sixty-four years. As often happens in rural communities, he is also one of Corky’s first cousins.
I never said to Corky tell me about Ken’s folks who were killed in a car crash three years after we were married. Yet, during the mental leapfrog of two recent, casual conversations, I learned a little more about the couple who raised the fellow I married.
On a warm, summer day, Corky and I were sitting on her driveway reminiscing about our school days and I mentioned, “I had to say no the first time that Kenny called and asked me to go to a movie because my parents thought fourteen was too young for me to date.”
Corky responded, “Aunt Hazel was mad at your mother because she wouldn’t let you go out with her son.”
The two women had been best friends while members of the class of 1930 attending Durand High School, but drifted apart as often happened after marriage. I knew girls’ mothers were involved in their daughters’ dating lives but I didn’t know boys’ moms were concerned, too.
At a recent lunch with Corky, I mentioned I had stabbed the end of a finger on my left hand with a paring knife while washing dishes. With a Band-Aid on the small wound to prevent bleeding, I babied that hand–Ken did the dishes for several days. I said, “When I have a little injury that makes me do things with only one hand, it reminds me of my father-in-law.” Rolland had lost his left hand in a factory accident during the 1940s and wore a hook prothesis in its place.
Corky replied, “I remember being at their house when he was learning to tie his shoes one-handed. When he finally got it done, Aunt Hazel reached down, untied it and said, ‘Do it again’.” My friend’s remark made me realize that for him to accomplish all that he did, it took a lot of practice and also, support from his family.
Those two anecdotes made me feel I knew Ken’s parents a little better.
Do you have conversations with relatives that give you insights into members of your family?