The Chessman Cometh

One Saturday morning in the summer of 1954, Carolyn and Jim were gone somewhere, and I was busily cleaning house when the door bell rang.
There stood John with a chess set in his hand.
I knew that he was Agnes' brother, and I had seen him at the Lake a time or to, but he was practically a stranger to me.
He asked if he could come in and give the chess set to Carolyn. Said she had shown an interest in chess recently at Agnes' house, and he'd like for her to have a set.
I asked him to come in, but Carolyn wasn't at home. He got around to asking if I thought she and Jim would like to go fishing and boating.
Well, of course, they would.
Well, how about today, and wouldn't I go along. No date. Just taking the children for an outing.
I'm sure that Agnes had told him that I wasn't interested in ANY man. My friends had tried to introduce me to eligible men, and that was NOT for me.
ME? Dating? No indeed.
But the children would love a boat outing and it was a beautiful day. John said he'd be back about three to pick us up. No need to make a picnic, he'd take care of that.
Aunt Eva was still living in our downstairs bedroom at that time and on the morning that John invited us to the lake, Beth Ann also came by. I told Beth Ann what I had accepted, and that I had decided I couldn't do that. I was going to call John and make some excuses. She laughed at me and encouraged me to take the children on that fun outing and enjoy it myself.
When John returned to work from the War, cars were very scarce. He finally found a little old Crosley, but he had worn it out and bought a big black Buick before I met him. He took us to Lake Whitney in that car and he kept it for many, many years after that.
I don't think the children had been in a boat before, not Jim, for sure.
John had everything in that boat. All sorts of fishing gear, and live minnows.
The fish were biting and we really pulled them in. Carolyn and Jim caught so many, it kept John and me both baiting hooks and taking fish off lines.
About dark, we got hungry. John pulled out a one burner stove, and he cooked hamburgers there in the boat. We tossed the scraps into the water and the fish jumped at them. Then John pulled out tremendous apples and oranges. Delicious.
It was late when I decided we must go home. Carolyn and I helped unload the boat, and Jim, age four, tried to help pull the boat in.
John accidentally knocked him in the water, and immediately pulled Jim out again. John said, "You're all right!"
Jim looked up at him with those big, blue eyes and said, "I'm not all right either !"
On the way home, Jim slept and Carolyn pretended to sleep, but I think she was listening to our conversation. Most of our conversation in the boat had been with the children.
John asked me lots of questions. One of them was, did I ever plan to have any more children.
MORE children! I replied. Of course not. I don't plan ever to marry again. Loving is too painful.
Never again!
Famous last words.
I don't think John and I ever had a "date." But we had many "outings " with the children. Everyone has heard me say many times, no doubt, that John fell in love with the children and had to take me along with them.
It was very late when we got home. Jim was sound asleep and John carried him upstairs to bed. Carolyn managed to get to bed on her own. John cleaned those fish in the kitchen sink before he left.
Aunt Eva was asleep in the downstairs bedroom and that made me feel better to have a man in the house at that time of night.
I think John came back the next day after church and cooked those fish. He made a hit with Aunt Eva, she always called him Mr. John. Fish was her favorite food, and he really made it taste good.

Another Saturday in the summer of 1954 John took Carolyn and Jim and me swimming at Lake Whitney. We cruised up the river and tied up the boat to swim.
Carolyn and John jumped in and began swimming. I tied Jim up well in a life jacket and he went in the water. He had not learned to swim yet, and I had always played with him in the shallow water.
John thought I couldn't swim either. He kept offering me a life jacket, but I eased into the water and started swimming away. John was so excited, being out there with us that he forgot to take off his glasses. He didn't remember them until we were in the car on the way back home, and realized that he had lost them in the lake.