Forty and counting

Memorial Hall in Atchison, Kansas, was the scene of many dances in the sixties. The colleges put them on regularly. I saw Ike and Tina Turner there, as well as other popular bands at the time. On October 7, 1967, I joined some other St. Mary girls that came up to Big A on a bus. We begged the driver to drive around the corner to let us out.
We usually broke up into small groups of two or three so we wouldn't inimidate the boys too much. We thought it must be hard to walk up to a big group and ask someone to dance. I think I was standing alone about 10 p.m. when this tall, handsome guy walked over. We danced awhile and stopped and talked some. He told me that he had joined the National Guard and was leaving soon for basic training. This was the height of the Vietnam War and so he had decided to join the guard instead of getting drafted.
His brother, Jim, rushed up to him and took the Maur Hill letter jacket he was wearing. Evidently, they shared it! Mike asked if I would like to go to Maur Hill's Homecoming the next week and I said yes. My roommate was from Atchison and I had heard lots of stories about MH.
The following week Janet and I came up for the game. Her boyfriend bought us both big yellow mum corsages. No word or sign of Mike. Later he found Mike and told him his "date" was here.
He joined us and we spent the rest of the evening together-even took him home to the farm.

Two years earlier, as a freshman, I was down in the dumps about my dating prospects, and brother Frank sent me a telegram. I think it's the only telegram I ever got. Anyway, he cheered me up and told me to have faith. Someday the right one would come along. That was Oct. 7, 1965.