Alma and Hazel had always been close.  Alma, now 16, had helped care for her younger-by-two-years sister Hazel.  They had shared everything and been the best of friends and now they were about to share the biggest day of both of their young lives.

Not too far down the road, Andy was up extra-early.  He'd done all his chores and was getting cleaned up.  Amid the every constant commotion of big family like his, no one noticed that Andy was a bit quieter than usual.  He kept peering down the dusty road outside, waiting for Clifford Lee, Andy's uncle who happened to be his same age, who was picking him up.  Pacing and nervous, Andy kept checking his pocket to be sure he had the money.  Yes, there it was, safe and sound.  He'd been saving for awhile for just this very day.

Hazel and Alma were ready when the boys arrived.  Somehow or other, they'd managed to get their chores finished, donned in their Sunday dresses, and fixed each other's hair without attracting too much attention.  They were radiant and giddy with excitement!  Freedom from constantly tending to babies and children was coming down the road in a cloud of red dust.

Andy and Clifford Lee jumped down and helped the ladies into the old car that Clifford had borrowed for the day.  The four of them were breathless with excitement as they drove away.  Headed for the border of South Carolina, where nobody would recognize them and the laws were a little more lax.  And far enough away that if Homer, Hazel and Alma's daddy, got wind of their plans he wouldn't be able to catch up with them in time."

January 19, 1930...the wedding day for these two young couples.

I doubt if the day's events transpired exactly like I wrote above.  I wish Grandma was still around so I could ask her.  But I suspect I wasn't too far off track.  My dear cousin Lydia, our family geneologist/historian filled me in on what she knew for sure and I took a little literary license to fill in the blanks.

It's hard for me to imagine my grandparents as young, giddy teenagers.  They always seemed old to me, even though Grandma had a baby boy a month after I was born so I too have an uncle that is my same age, so she really wasn't all that old.  But when you're a little child, grandparents just seem ancient (I'm sure my grandchildren feel the same way about me!).

Hazel and Andy told the magistrate a "story" about their ages, Hazel claiming to be 18 (when she was only 14, 2 months shy of 15) and Andy claiming to be 19 when he was really 18.  As Grandpa told Lydia when she asked him about it, "that old man didn't care, he just wanted our money."  It was the Great Depression, after all, and money was scarce and people were people.  So he handed over the money and the magistrate performed a double ceremony, right then and there.

Clifford Lee Whitley married Alma Thompson and Andy Britt married Hazel Thompson.

Back home in North Carolina, their daddy Homer Thompson was fightin' mad when he found out. But nothing could be done, they were legally married.  And I guess Homer had two less mouths to feed.

I don't remember ever meeting Clifford Lee and Alma, so for me their story ends there.  But I do know Andy and Hazel's story was just beginning.

It's hard to imagine their life, but they were strong people.  Hazel thought her days of tending babies were behind her, but they were just beginning.  It wasn't long before her own babies began coming, birthing 12 children (most of them at home with a midwife).  In 1933, when she was still just the tender age of 18, her first two children as well as her own mother died and then that fall she gave birth to very tiny twin girls that miraculously survived and were the oldest of the ten children that grew up to adulthood and had families of their own.

Grandma and Grandpa both died in 2003 within just a few months of each other.  They had been married for 73 years.

I know their marriage was far from perfect and they had many, many rough times.  But they were of the time when divorce was unheard of and you stuck it out, no matter what.  Grandma never had a driver's license, so she depended on Grandpa for everything, and he often wasn't very dependable.  But through a whole lot of hard work and faith, they kept going and their legacy lives on in us, their many descendants.  They were very special people, for sure!

Thank you, Lydia, for reminding me of their anniversary.  Forever in the hearts of those who loved them...

...Hazel and Andy.