My journey begins when a boy met a girl...... on a Greyhound bus
It was a hot summer day July 3, 1958. The bus depot was busy with people coming and going all focused on their journey and their destinations. There was a heaviness in the air due to the heat of the summer’s day and a thickness of fumes from the row of buses lined up, all waiting to escort their travelers. There was a stickiness of old soda on the concrete and a smell of trash that had not been emptied. There was a loud chorus of voices as everyone was trying to talk over the next person.
In the middle of this crowd we focus on one young navy crewman as he gently fights through the crowd looking for his connection. He is excited as he makes his way home for a visit. Home is a small family farm where he grew up in Texas. It has been quite the journey so far as he has had to go out of his way just to get home. Continental bus line has the most direct route but due to a bus strike, he is taken a NOT so direct route on Grayhound. He finds his transport and finds a seat, pulls his hat over his eyes and settles in for the long ride.
At the same time there is a girl. She is starting a new chapter in her life as she travels to California to begin a new. She was a tiny thing with light auburn hair, Her life up to this point was filled with more hard times than happy times. Her home life was less than picture perfect and she was running to a new future. It ended up being so much more than she had planned for.
We are all going through life living different realities and on a different path from each other until by divine intervention, forces of nature or just shear happenstance our paths cross.
This girl found herself sitting next to this boy on that Grayhound bus. The bus that this boy would not be on if it was not for a Continental buss strike. This girl just happen to pick this day to start her new future. As they sat and started a polite conversation, how do you do and where are you going. That turned into sharing their stories and a desire to want to know more.
In a time before cell phones or video chat’s, this boy and girl started to pen letters. She waited with anticipation for his next letter and news from him and life on the navel ship. He could not wait to make it back to port each weekend to see what she was up to and her life in California. He had leave every third weekend and he spent that traveling the 600 mile trek (one way) for a single date. He made that trip every third weekend for a moment with that girl.
That boy and girl married August 1, 1959 and that couple are my parents.
There is so much more to this story and I invite you to follow me and stay tuned for the next chapter of this journey. @loveofhomecreations
