Where it all began...

October 1970

     In the fall of 1970, I caught Jim's eye in the cafeteria at MTSU. He was serving mashed potatoes.  While I was eating, his roommate, Jeff, who was also dating my roommate at the time, brought him over to introduce him to me.  I didn't think anything of it at the time due to the fact I was dating another fellow.  He asked me out several times, but I declined due to my dating status.  That December he asked me to to attend his Sigma Nu Christmas Dance.  With a little reluctance, I accepted.  The reluctance originated from my feelings for my current bo and the feelings my Sorority sister had for JB (aka...Jim).  I also had my Alpha Delta Pi Christmas dance the week before his.  Marvin Painter  was to be my date for that evening, but at the last minute something came up and he wasn't able to attend.  Out of desperation and in need of a for sure "YES", I invited JB.  Without any hesitation, he graciously accepted.

     My dorm room was a buzz of excitement and nervousness.  Why was I nervous about going out with him??? I wasn't sure at the time.  After completing the beauty process of putting on my homemade green velvet dress, curling my hair, and applying mascara, I was ready to go.  About an hour and a half after I was ready, he finally arrived.  This first date was turning out to be a bit of a disaster before I even met him in the lobby.  He didn't have a car, so he had to depend on doubling with another couple.   Come to find out, as JB was leaving with his roommate/chauffeur, his roommate decided that they were going to make a "run" at the liquor store, which happened to be in Shelbyville, 30 minutes away.  This, mind you, was NOT JB's idea.  However, he had to go along due to being at the driver's mercy.   As these 2 fellas were leaving the fraternity house, where he was living at the time, he did ask another brother to call me and tell me that he was running late.  Well, that brother never called.

After he arrived, I hesitantly made my way towards the lobby.  The dress that I was wearing was a green velvet  short dress.  The style at the time was "mini skirts" so it was pretty short.  I was aware of the fact that we were doubling at the time.  The closer I got to the car, I realized that we were tripling.  (Now that I look back, I'm not sure where that other couple came from.) We did all fit in the car, but by the time we got to the Kappa Sigma house for the warm-up party my new velvet dress was now a crushed velvet dress.
     Jim and I decided to join in on the dancing.  While we were dancing, another couple that was dancing with a beverage of their choice,  bumped into us and spilt their drink on me.  Now I was wearing a crushed velvet dress with the aroma of liquor.  The dance happened to be in one of the college's cafeterias, so there was no liquor allowed.  Jim and I were not drinking, but one of the couples we were "tripling" with had been drinking pretty heavily.  The other couple happened to be Jim's roommate and my roommate.  Later that evening, we all piled into the car to go to the dance on campus.
     When it was time to get our pictures taken, we decided to get them made with our roomates.  As the photographer took the picture, Jim goosed me at the waist.  What was an innocent giggle, ended up looking like we were the ones drinking once the pictures were returned a few weeks later.  One of the 3 pictures that were taken I was squirming and was laughing pretty hard.  This made my dress hike way up on my leg.  I never showed Mother and Daddy those pictures.
     There was an excellent band playing that night.  We enjoyed listening and dancing to their music.  The band's name was ALABAMA.  At the time, they were not well known.  It is pretty amazing how far they have come since that evening.  We just didn't know how lucky we were at the time.

    The week after my dance I got a bad case of the Flu.  Mother came to MTSU, and took me home to nurse me back to health.  I still wasn't well when it came time for JB's dance.  Mother could have co-written Emily Post's Book of Etiquette.  With that said, she implied that I really needed to go.  So she took me back to school and gave me several different medications to help me make it through the evening.  When we got to the fraternity house, (the venue of the dance) I was pretty tired.  I went into the Chapter Room and fell sound to sleep.  JB danced the night away with several other girls.  He has always been known to be able to "cut a rug" out on the dance floor.  Later on that evening, he came into the Chapter Room to check on me.  As I was laying there sound asleep, I awoke to Jim "listening to my heart beat".  I accused him of doing something else inappropriate, but he swears that he was just making sure I was still alive.
Some how we did end up going on a third date and having a great time. By Easter we were lavaliered.  I went to Cincinnati with him for Spring Break.  This was our sophomore  year.  The next year he transferred to Samford University in Birmingham.

Our long distance romance proved to be a strong one.  Jim still didn't have a car, so he would hitch hike to Nashville as often as he could.

Our Trip To Opryland Hotel With Donnie's Family

Donnie's family was coming to town to celebrate Christmas. They asked if they could come by and see us, so I invited then to dinner. We had a great visit and after dinner we went to Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas
Decorations. As we were driving over to the hotel, Colin kept asking to see the SHREK movie on the DVD player in our car. Jim got into the donkey part of the movie, so he decided to unroll the window of the car and holler "Where's the donkey?" Everyone that could hear him would laugh as we would pass them. We all thought this was funny until until we pulled up to the nativity scene and he continued to yell out the window "Where's the donkey?"

We enjoyed seeing the decorations, but we all decided that the hotel was NOT stroller and wheelchair friendly. We were glad to find our way back to the cars.