Ruthie and Loren in assisted living
Loren and Ruth were a couple. They were one of the pairs leaning against the wall as high school couples did during class breaks. I wonder if high school couples still “hold up the wall” between classes.
I was younger and seniors seemed nearly grown.
Loren was the kicker on the football team and played center. Ruth, then called “Ruthie,” worked the concession stand with the 4-H gals.
As time went on things changed.
Loren went to an ag school to learn more about agriculture, got drafted and against all expectations did not marry Ruthie.
He met Peggi at Chu Lai, Vietnam. She was too cute for her own good, a “Donut Dolly,” an American Red Cross Volunteer in a light blue, pinstripped dress bringing the troops “a touch of home.” And donuts.
Guys wanted to hear her talk. She was from somewhere up north, maybe Tennessee and spoke with the cotton mill twang you hear around Northwest Georgia and east Tennessee.
Loren became a county agent and bounced around the state until home folks lost track of him and interest in him. You sometimes hear his name on Friday nights when someone recalls a game when he was called upon to punt on fourth down and drop kicked that ball over fifty yards right through the uprights.
The officials didn’t know what to do with it. The team lost anyway. Ruthie spent her sweet time finding a mate and was married to Edward for nearly a whole year. They went separate ways then got back together. He up and died before turning sixty.
Their daughter recently retired from the bank.
It was one of those “Second Time Around” things like the Frank Sinatra song. The lyrics were: “Love is lovelier the second time around, Just as wonderful with both feet on the ground.”
I know Ruthie and Edward had a good life but always wondered why she and Loren didn’t make it. What was lacking in their “first love” when they were discovering all that new, fresh stuff. Typically, somebody messes up or they just grow apart.
Loren’s wife didn’t make the long haul. As we say in the South, “She wasn’t all there.” His children and grandchildren escaped whatever curse haunted Peggi but she eventually dissolved into herself.
Loren and Ruthie meet and discover each other all over again every morning. They are residents of the same assisted living place. Their children moved them closer to their South Georgia hometown.
They sit together overlooking the garden, sometimes holding hands. You have to wonder how much they remember or if any of “that old feeling” is left. Do they recall their first kiss, seeing movies at the drive-in, football games, 4-H projects?
As the day grows their memories fade, common with dementia patients. It is called “sun downing.”
And that song ends with: “I’m oh so glad we met, the second time around.”
Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.