Bill and Doris…. The Love Story Part 1: The Drugstore, then Marriage
It was March, 1944 on the University of Georgia north campus in Athens, GA. Bill Warren, my Poppa Bill, and Doris Wheeler, my Granny, were to cross paths on a warm spring day. Pop, originally from South Carolina, was in Athens for war training school in the Navy and was 18 years old, about to turn 19 in June. Doris was living in Athens with her family, after her parents settled down from the carnival and gallivanting in hot air balloons (those are good stories too) and was currently attending the business school located at Lumpkin and Clayton Street. They only had 11 grades then and she had already graduated from high school.
Doris was on campus with some of her girlfriends thinking about going down to the drug store for a soda. Bill was on his way across campus on what he calls a “hot date”. He had already thought he had fallen in love with a girl in Miami during the first part of his training. Being pretty full of himself, he decided he would approach this pretty group of ladies, eyeing the prettiest one, Doris Wheeler. Now Pop said that you should never talk to girl you like most first, and that you should always talk to one of her friends to get her attention. Sly, I say.
Doris acted like she didn’t give a hill of beans and talked about her fiancé and that they were going to the drug store. Doris was engaged to Howard, a boy she grew up next door to. I’m sure my Bill took this as a challenge. Doris has witty attitude that is very endearing, to this day, and is very beautiful. Bill went to see this other girl for a while and then decided to do something that would change his life and countless others … forever.
Bill waited till this group of girls were settled at the drug store counter, drinking sodas. The phone rang at the store, and the employee asked if there was a Doris Wheeler at the counter. Doris, surprised, got on the phone and was told that it was her fiancé, Howard, from the Army. I’m not sure how long my Bill had her going, 5 minutes maybe, but when she figured it out, she was perturbed, and curious. Bill asked her if she wanted to go to the movies, and she said yes.
Now in 1944 there were a lot of rules for cadets. It’s amazing these men ever snagged a woman. My pop couldn’t have a beer, couldn’t ride in a vehicle at all, and could only be out Saturdays and Sundays after chapel, which they were expected to attend. One of the few restaurants in Athens was the Varsity. It was at the corner of College Avenue and Broad Street, and women were not allowed inside, due to the roughness and “men talk”. The Georgia Theater, at the time, had movies for only the cadets and their dates, a history fact the paper missed this passed year after the fire. Maybe that was why Doris said yes, so that she could see a movie, or maybe it was because Bill was, and is, handsome and clever. My great grandfather, Fred Wheeler, didn’t know what to think about his handsome older boy that couldn’t even pick up his only child. Bill recalls that her father sat like a lump the day he had to drop her off at the movies.
Doris and Bill became “good buddies” and often discussed her fiancé and his “hot dates”. They then fell in love… Bill proposed in the fall of 1944 at Fred and Eula’s home, in the yard. Doris said “I’m not sure.” with her mystic blue eyes starring him down. Then, she said yes, and that they were best friends meant for each other. They were married on November 28, 1944 at the ages of 16 and 19, at their pastor’s home in the presence of a couple friends and family. Doris hummed the “ Chattanooga Choo Choo” as she walked across the room to her groom.
There are many more beautiful stories to tell about these lovebirds.
Happy 66th Anniversary, my beloved Grandparents, you are an inspiration to everyone that has ever known you and you have a hand in shaping who I am today. The following “Thank you” is a fraction of what you mean to me.
There is so much I am thankful for and you two are at the top of the list! Thank you for taking time to come and get me after my parents divorced. Thank you for the time that my mom’s car that my mom’s car kept breaking down and you traded with her. You gave her a car so that I would have a safe way around. Thank you for turning my bed down and turning on the night light to make my visit even more special. Pop, thank you for praying with me at night, I still remember that. Thank you for taking me to Bear hallow to see the dear and that you let me roll down the hill and get dirty. I used to wet the bed and have bad dreams. You two never made me feel bad for that. You took me and taught me about fishing, and a little catching, and encouraged my love of nature. Finding this wonderful place that we live in, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. Thank you for the pets that that you had that I loved dearly: Ginger, Hannah from Savannah, Prince, Sheba from Geneva, Brandy, and Tuffy. Granny, I thankful for your voice that I inherited. Thank you for the potatoes salad, hot sausage, YOUR spaghetti, boiled peanuts, and picked beets I may have never enjoyed otherwise. “Don’t knock it till you have tried it” you always say. I still need to learn how to make your biscuits. Pop, from you, I get my inability to spell but also my knack for understanding and interpreting people. It astounds me what you have done for the mental health field in this State and that I’m able to follow in your footsteps to make a difference in someone’s live. I must get my heart for those with mental and developmental disabilities from you.
Thank for you taking me on trips in the camper as a kid and taking me to New York as a teenager. Pop, it always stuck with me that you said “If you don’t enjoy your job, it’s time to find a new one. Life is too short. “I have already made one career change and who knows where life will take me now! We are still working on that list of all the different jobs you have had! Every month, it seems like you tell me of a new one. I’m thankful that you went to medical school in your 30’s to pursue the next goal that you had. Granny, the mother of 3 boys, no washer and dryer, no microwave, no frozen steamable veggies…. You are some women. I love how you say that without your mother, Eula May, you would have been lost raising Fred because he just seemed like a little doll. I guess you two are just as thankful to your parents for everything they did for your family that it was natural for you to keep on giving. When our house was hit by lighting again and we needed help and I was being prideful, you said, “What do you think we have been working for all these years if not to help our family?” I will remember that and hope that we will be able to do the same for our grand and great grand children.
Together, you have always supported me, encouraged me, provided for me, taught me, and loved me for who I am. You accepted and loved my step children from my first marriage and have forever touched their lives. You helped Michael and I make this place livable and safe. Pop, you have taught me to trouble shoot to save money and save things to save money. I have a “hell box” too. You two are the reason that we have been able to keep our head above water with some of our pride intact. You have supported me through a marriage, divorce, a remarriage, a foreclose, Jonathan going back to school, a pregnancy, motherhood and now cancer. Knowing the trials that you have been through from wreaks, to plane crashes, lost daughter in laws, Altimers, being broke during the early years and medical school, the work that you too put into your lives to make it a great story, encourages me keep moving even when I feel like giving up. Your positive attitude, cleverness, ability to listen, to laugh at yourself, and watching you help those in need, whether human or animal, continues to make me want to grow as a person. I know that you have steadfast faith in God and that he has never forsaken you.
Together, you have shown me that marriage is hard work but that if you are friends, it shouldn’t be like pulling teeth. Pop, I see you take care of Granny and Granny I see you take care of Pop. Now that one of you can’t hear and the other is low talker, I get to be the interpreter. I title I carry with me from house to house around this Farm with a smile. I like to think that I’m helping take care of you by checking in, getting you not to over do it, and bugging you to talk to the doctors about something, but then I walk into to a healthy lunch of spinach, beets, and beans and get to sit in your peaceful home and talk about wonderful stories and watch you hold your sweet great grand daughter like she is the most precious treasure on earth. I’m a pretty lucky girl.
The wisdom that you two have could fill many books. I hope that I retain enough of it to get me through this life and pass it down through the generations. Your stories will not be forgotten… I’m going to write them down J I look forward to you telling me them….. at least 50 more times.
I love you with all my heart! Happy Anniversary my dear sweet grandparents!
Love,
Heather WARREN Cape
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