Chapter 24: Married

Betty May:

Just short months after all the trouble Davy and Pa put paid to, I began to look forward to our wedding. We planned nothing so grand as what Samantha and Hank had, of course. Truth to tell neither Davy or I wanted a big showy affair.

I could hardly contain myself. It was early June and I was the envy of all the girls in school except Gladys Kemperer, the judge's daughter and Marilyn Marple whose father owned the new bank just started up in town.

They were jealous because I had an engagement ring and I was engaged to the most eligible boy in school, David Hansen was considered a better catch than any other boy in the school, even those from the wealthier families in town.

More than one of my classmates had acted like a cheap hussy around him. The funny thing is, from the day we finally got things straightened out, I knew in my heart Davy was for me alone.

Of course it didn't mean I didn't get jealous of Ruby Nelson vamping at him like Barbara Stanwyck in the movie "Baby Face." She just threw herself at anything in pants. Ruby didn't go "too far" like Barbara Stanwyck did. But she was always making eyes at Davy and I wanted to slap her face. I never did, but I thought of it a few times. Davy put her in her place though, in the best way possible.

He told her, "Ruby, you're going to be real pretty, some day." He said it so nice and so friendly she couldn't really act offended at him, but she sure got the message. So did the other girls.

His face always lit up with a big smile when he saw me for the first time of any day, at school or any place else. Oh I wanted to run up to him and throw my arms around him and hug him so much. But after a couple of close calls, we didn't do any hugging or other stuff most of the other girls did with their boy friends. We didn't dare.

One time Davy told me how one of the many reasons he wanted me for his wife was because I was not only the prettiest girl in town, but I also set the highest standards. He told me with pride in his voice and said next, "Also because I love you."

There was also the time trashy Benny Davies tried to get fresh with me. He touched me where he shouldn't and I screamed at him and slapped him and he slapped me back. It didn't really hurt very much. He was just trying to show me who was boss.

Davy came around the corner of the hallway in school just in time and saw what happened. He let out a yell and knocked some other kids out of the way and grabbed Benny and lifted him up in the air and threw him down on the floor.

Benny actually bounced once. Then he just lay there and didn't move. I got scared because I had never seen any real violence in my whole life except for the time Davy broke the awful man's nose for trying to steal Dog. All of Davy's other adventures, I only heard about second hand.

Mister Corbett heard the commotion and ran out of the school office and Grabbed Davy by the arm and yelled, "Get back." He knelt down, then he stood up and asked what happened. I said Benny hit me for slapping him for taking liberties with me and Davy saw him hit me and grabbed him and threw him to the floor before he could hit me again, harder.

Some of the girls who saw what happened said the same thing happened to them too with Benny.

"Besides, Mister Corbett," Velma Smith said, "Benny has done whatever he wanted with some of the other girls and we were all afraid to tell because he said he would hurt us bad if we did. We don't all have Davy Hansen to protect us." Some of the boys looked away, embarrassed because they hadn't stood up to Benny Davies.

Davy just stood there, his nostrils flaring like a mad bull's. I hugged his arm and said, "Davy? Davy? Talk to me." He was beginning to scare me. His eyes blazed with anger.

Davy turned his head and looked at me. "Betty May, are you all right?" I threw my arms around his waist and started to cry.

"Oh, Davy. You scared me." I sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Betty, but I saw him hurt you and I got mad." I felt him start to tense up again. I laid my head on Davy's chest and drew comfort from his touch.

Mister Corbett told us, "Please. Not on school grounds." He looked down his nose at me. He was like so many people in school systems all over. He was more worried about how it appeared for me to be hugging Davy on school property than he was about how bad hurt were Benny Davies or I.

Next week was graduation and we both would be gone from Woodman High. Davy had skipped a grade and I didn't feel I needed the extra two years of schooling.

Then two weeks after graduation we would marry. Not even Benny Davies or Mr. Corbett could take the glow of anticipation off my face for very long. It's what Mother called it, "a glow of anticipation." And it's what I felt like inside, like I was glowing. My mother and I were never confidants like some girls are with their mothers.

Looking back I can see how we both missed out on a lot. But my mother was unable to be intimate and share her feelings with me. She and father were both very formal people. Oh, they could unbend and smile and tell a little joke, but it was impossible to get really close to them and confide in them and share my innermost feelings with either of them.

Davy's Ma was the opposite. I could tell her anything. She always listened, her head sort of cocked to one side, as she listened with her whole being just to me. She made everybody think they were very special to her. And I truly believe this is how she felt.

Anyway, they took Benny to the hospital and the new chief of police came to our house and asked me what had happened. I told him and he thanked me and left. I had already told my parents and my father said one word when I described how Davy just grabbed Benny and threw him to the floor.

"Good." my father said with emphasis. His eyes were blazing and I was afraid he was going to do something foolish or dangerous.

My mother smiled and said, "You have quite a catch in Davy. He's a very fine young man." It was the first time she ever referred to Davy as anything other than a boy. I was startled and then realized Davy, my Davy was indeed a man in every sense of the word.

We had been going out to "our farm" on weekends and I helped Davy build our house to John's plans. At first Davy thought it was foolishness to want so many windows in a house. Since the house was facing east, I wanted the parlor to have windows on three sides so I could watch the road and have plenty of visibility.

The kitchen was on the south and west corner so I wanted windows on the south and west sides of the house so I could see out over the fields and the back yard.

"Well, we better not have any rocks around here," he grumbled to me.

"Rocks? What rocks? What are you talking about, David Lee Hansen?" He was making no sense to me at all. "What do rocks have to do with anything?"

"Well, this house is going to have more glass in it than wood at the rate you're going. And you knew what they say about people who live in glass houses."

"They shouldn't throw rocks," we chorused together. We started laughing and I slapped his shoulder and told him to get back to work on our glass house. From then on our house was called "The Glass House." Davy's Dad and their new hired hand sometimes came over when things were slow at their place to help get the house finished. It took us a year to complete our wonderful house and it was worth it, every bit.

Pa Hansen was a little put off by all the glass, just like Davy had been. But as the whole structure neared completion, he finally nodded and agreed, "So much glass looks nice, but you better not throw any rocks at anybody."

We dutifully laughed and went inside. Downstairs the parlor ran across the whole front of the house. It was a forty by twenty foot room. Davy convinced Pa Hansen it was a good idea by pointing out how, with some partitions, we would have two more bedrooms if we had enough children.

It always embarrassed me to talk about having babies in front of men folk. With Davy, it was different. When I asked him how many babies he wanted he said flatly, "Six." Then he asked me, "And how many daughters do you want."

"Davy." I exclaimed, "I have more to do than just make babies."

"Not with me, you don't." he grinned.

"David Hansen, if you're going to talk dirty, I want to go back over to your folks house, right now. I will not have you saying such things to me." I wasn't as angry as I let on, but I wasn't going to let him get in the habit of talking like that around me. After all, it is always up to the woman to set the moral tone in a marriage. People were always going to say we were a good family.

Davy half smiled, "Aw, come on, Betty May, I was just joking, I didn't mean anything disrespectful of you." He did look sorry.

"All right, David, but you just remember I am a virtuous woman." There. I said it. I referred to myself as a woman and not just a girl. Davy didn't even notice.

He just hugged me once and said, "I love you so much I'm gonna explode." Then we got back to work

The upstairs took a lot of work because of the three smaller bedrooms and the master bedroom. The Hansen's house was build single story European peasant style. It started out as a cottage with two rooms and was added on to as needed.

There were no closets or built ins. Wardrobes were placed where necessary. I wanted built in closets large enough to hold clothes on hangers so we wouldn't have so much folded away. Our bedroom was fifteen by twenty-five feet and I had room for a dressing closet. It turned out to be a good idea because my inventive Davy turned it into a complete bathroom, with a big cast iron claw footed tub.

We had another bathroom downstairs, complete with a smaller tub and a shower spigot over one end. Then Davy could wash off all over fast when he came in from the fields. Davy and Pa also built a small room over the down stairs bath where they put a hundred gallon hot water tank a builder had ordered and half paid for and went broke. It had been sitting around the hardware store for a couple of years so they were glad to unload the "white elephant" on us.

The sink downstairs had a hand pump to supply all the kitchen needs; but the shower on the porch from the windmill two hundred feet up the hill from the house. Davy and his father were the two most inventive men I ever knew.

Davy even promised me we'd have electric lights with real Edison lamps instead of the Coleman lamps that burned too bright, for comfort. They could also a little dangerous. Although we never had any trouble, a couple of families were burned out by accidents with their Coleman gas lanterns.

All told, we had what was truly a dream house. The barn and the out buildings were not all so important to me, but in the house, I was the queen. Davy could build me anything he wanted, but it didn't come into the house unless I agreed.

After we were married there was one exception, Dog. The ugly beast went with Davy everywhere. Only when Davy was gone over night did Dog get left behind. Then he stayed home to guard and protect me. He was ugly as a dog could get. He was the biggest dog I had ever seen and he adored Davy. As for me, he permitted me to feed him. Oh, after a while he liked it for me to pet him, but he was always Davy's dog.

Ma Hansen and my mother got their heads together and made curtains to go in our new house. There were also light velvet drapes we could draw at night for privacy. All the windows upstairs had nice heavy curtains. I laughed and said I bet there wasn't too much curtain material left in all of Woodman County. In a very rare moment of humor, Mother said, "Well, we were talking about maybe going to Enid if we needed any more." It was so rarely my mother made a joke I laughed harder than was warranted.

The curtains were hung and the heavy blue and purple woolen Turkish rugs imported from Chicago were laid and let settle. The furniture, though not new, was of all good quality. Pa had been scouring auctions and sales barns for two years to buy us the best quality he could. He had the knack to be in the right place at the right time and always got the best deal on anything he sought.

By dint of hard work, what today is called "sweat equity," and long hours, we were able to start out with more than most people ever dreamed of back then. Here people around us were losing their homes and farms and went without food or other necessities and Davy and I were beginning life together in what would be called the "lap of luxury," by most people.

We were so thankful. We knew what great a blessing had been bestowed on us by his parents. Our freshly painted yellow and white house was on a par with the banker Marple's home and Marilyn snootily referred to it as "our manse." Davy and I didn't have a manse, nor did we want one. We had exactly what we wanted, a home.

"Davy," I told him just before the Big Day, "I would be happy with you in a shack by the river." I meant it too.

"Yup," he told me. "And it is just one of the reasons why you will never have to live in one. Because you are willing to take me just as I am. I just want to give you so much more. And with my Pa's help. I surely will." He hugged me so tight I grunted.

In a poor imitation of Mae West, I said in a nasal voice, "Easy there, Big Boy, you don't want to bruise the merchandise. Then I kissed him on the lips and slipped back before he could grab me again. We had three days to go.