Laura: But that is how I met Cecil. And we went together a year. And then his friend had been staying with him there at Belva, Jess Osborne. He has the same name as his mother’s maiden name, but they weren’t any relation. But anyway, they worked over an old Model T Ford--put a 16-valve head on it, and they was getting ready to come to Akron. And he hadn’t told me anything about it. Now this a true story, Michael. Anyway, I did not hear it from him for three or four days, and my brother had gone to Dixie and stayed with his friends overnight. When he came home the next morning, and of course the boys in Bentree were jealous of the boys in Dixie. So, my brother said to me, “How are you this morning?” And I said, “Why do you ask?”  He said, “Well, I am just going to give you some news. Your old Kiser Bill is gone.” That is what they called him. I thought, it is a joke. But I never said nothin’. Well, Saturday night came, and we went to the show. And sure enough, everybody was there except Cecil. By that time, I knew that it was true. So, I thought, well, he is gone. I will never see him again. So, I grieved around there for probably a couple, three months, maybe a couple months, I don’t remember anymore, it has been so long. Didn’t hear a word from him.

So, I went to the show again the next weekend--that was the only place we had to go. And sometimes they would have a square dance after the show. Daddy would allow us to stay and dance, as long as there wasn’t any rumbles or rowdy going on. But most of the time somebody always had a bottle sneaking around, you know. It was moonshine back then. But anyway, when they would start that, Dad would say it is time to go home girls. Go home. But this one time in particular, the boys from Dixie was there, and there were some people there by the name of Kidd (?). And they had three boys: Charles, Jim, and I forget the third one’s name. But anyway, during the show…again the boys always managed to sit in back of the girls, you know. So, Charles tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Laura.” I said hi to him. He said, “May I take you home tonight?” I said, “Yes.” He was really handsome: tall, blonde, curly hair, peaches-and-cream complexion. So, we had gone together a couple of weeks.

Mike: Mike teased her about being popular.

Laura: Well, if that is what you would like to call it, I don’t know. I really didn’t look too bad, I don’t think. So, we went together. He asked if it would be alright for me to come up tomorrow afternoon, and I said, “Sure”. As I said, there was nothing to do. Maybe five or six of us would get together and go for a walk and come back. He did not stay too long because he had to walk back, he lived up to Bell Creek (that is quite a little ways). So, he said, “Well if nothing happens, I will see you next weekend.” And I said, “Okay that will be fine.” Well in the meantime, I went someplace, I don’t know where, maybe to the company store. It was a nice big store. Someone said to me have you heard the news. I said no, I haven’t been any place. Well, your old Kiser Bill is back. Well, sure enough when we went to the show on Saturday night, who was there but Cecil. And Charlie was there, too. I didn’t know what to do. Because I loved Cecil, but I didn’t know if he would ever be back. He never told me he would be back or never told me he was going away. But anyway, he said, “Well, sweetheart, I am back.” I said, “Yes, but it has been a long while. How’s come you didn’t write?”  He said, “You will never know how many letters I have written, but somehow I never had the courage to mail them.” He said, “Can I go home with you?” I said, “I don’t know. I’ve been going with Charlie.” He said, “Yea, but I love you. That is the reason I came back.”  So, we were married within a week. I thought he must have loved me, or he would not have come back. They were “hoboing”. They had money, but they were hobos. You could do that back then. There were three of them, Uncle Gib went with them. Yeah, he was hoboing.