Words from a Reader

The “Writing Life Stories” e-mails I receive are such treasures. As soon as I see there is one in my inbox, I read it immediately. I look forward to them and never know how they will touch me. They can be interesting, informative, humorous, and/or touching.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Where is she now?


Twenty three year old Glenda

Glenda Council fishing at lake in AL with Barry Beall and his parents


I don't think I had ever fished until I met Barry and went on a trip to a lake in Alabama with his parents. I was 23 years old, shortly after I met my future husband. The pictures here were slides that I recently digitalized. I have more photos that show a young, shy girl, who thought she was too thin and was unattractive because she wore glasses.







In a box downstairs are many slide trays that tell the story of our lives from the early dating until our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, TN. Slides tell about vacation stories, our high moments and our low. I am the token person in most of the pictures because Barry liked to have a human being or an animal in all his nature or landscape pictures. We don't have nearly as many pics of him because he was the one behind the camera.



When we married, both of us had new convertibles. My first job, teaching fourth grade at Sylvester Road Elementary School, afforded me the luxury of purchasing my first car. I loved that car more than some folks love their kids, and I was not about to part with it. So Barry sold his brand new Chevy II ragtop because we could not make two car payments each month. He bought this little bug-eyed auto you see above. I think it was an Austin-Healey Sprite. This was not his first sports car. While in the army in Germany, he owned a couple of fast little cars, and he loved to drive them.

The house in the above photo is my parents' home in southwest Georgia. We gathered there almost every Sunday for a big dinner with my family. Barry and I lived only a couple of miles away on the same farm where I grew up. I thought I would live there always, even though he and I often fantasized about having a mountain getaway in north Georgia. We built our dream home based on Barry's memories of California houses he had seen while serving at Monterrey Language School. The slant roof, redwood structure with walls of glass, an upstairs balcony and spiral staircase developed into the home we had saved for and always wanted. I dreamed of my house for several years after leaving it to move to the mountains.

7 comments:

  1. I first learned to drive in one of those Austin Healy Sprites, my parents' second car. I creamed in the front of it before six months had passed. I've never forgotten it. :-)

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  2. It's so fun to see the photos of the young you and Barry. I love the smiley face on that car, too. Your comment about the Sunday dinners reminded me that we used to eat at my in-laws house. Every day until we married, and then on weekends. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. Ellen

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  3. DJan, I can imagine how hard it was to learn to drive in the Sprite. I didn't drive it much, but I know the gear shift was in the floor and it was completely different from my Olds.

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  4. Ellen, thanks for your comment. I still miss those Sunday dinners and I think, here in the mountains, families still gather as they did when we were a young couple.

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  5. These are wonderful memories of you and Barry. You were a beautiful young girl. Barry was handsome, too. The car was neat, too. So glad you shared these wonderful memories with us.

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  6. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they would never end. Wait a minute, those are words I lifted from some source - which one.
    What a handsome couple you made. Thank you for sharing as these photos take us all back.

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  7. Brenda Kay, it is fun to go down memory lane once in a while, isn't it? That is what life is, making memories.
    It was good seeing you and your family Thursday evening and your reading was wonderful, as always.

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