Thirty-Eighth Year Issue 2

I REMEMBER

By Hartford Pryor.

I remember how in the 1930's Mr.
Lonnie Reeves lived on North Main
Street, 2nd house from the Peerless
Mill; and my family, the Pryors, lived
2nd house from the Peerless on South
Main. Since there were no houses be-
tween ours, our front doors faced each
other even though we lived on separate
streets. Naturally, our families were
good friends.

When Mr. Lonnie Reeves' niece,
Geneva Reeves, graduated from the
Roberta High School in 1945 she came
to Thomaston to live with her uncle and
worked in the spinning room at the
Peerless Mill. This was just before I
got out of the Army and came back to
my job with Thomaston Mills.

Once I got home, very soon, she
and I became close friends and started
going to the East Thomaston Baptist
Church together.

After about three months, she en-
rolled in a nursing training school in
Macon for a three-year course, but we
still kept in contact with each other. I
did not have a car, but sometimes on
the weekend I would catch a Trailways
bus and go down to Macon and stay
with her aunt there so that we could be
together.

Then, while she was still in fram-
ing, her family moved to Thomaston
and Neva would come home quite of-
ten on the weekend; and we would be
together.

One day a group of us young folks
met at my house and we were playing
gospel songs on the old-fashioned re-
cord player. At one time everyone

was on the front porch, except Neva
and me. We were still playing the gos-
pel records in the living room.

While we were there alone, I asked
Neva to marry me. She said that she
would. I went to the front porch and
told the other young people. They all
got excited and came into living room
to congratulate us. The record player
was still playing and someone asked
me if that was the song playing when I
asked Neva to marry me.   I said,
"Yes!" They all asked me if I knew the
title of the song. To my surprise the
name of the song was "I could hang my
head in shame." Everyone got a big
laugh out of that. We married in Au-
gust 1949.

After almost 55 years of living
together, we are one happy couple!
I've never had "to hang my head in
shame."