When Captain Stewartt and I were transferred to the Kenowis, I stopped seeing my German Fraulein because the Kenowis was on the steady England run. After several trips, the Kenowis was laid up for repairs in 1934.

     At this time, Waterman started a coastwise run between New York and other Atlantic and Gulf ports and I asked to be placed on one of the coastwise ships that was making 28 day round trip voyages. I was waiting for the SS Pan Atlantic in early February when I decided to take an automobile ride with some friends to Prichard, a small town three miles southwest of Mobile.

     We stopped at a small traveling carnival. There was a ferris wheel and a self photo affair. We saw a group of young girls ten or more of them enjoying themselves. One stood out from all the rest. She was wearing a polka dot dress which made a distinct contrast to her blonde hair. She was the prettiest of the group and I was immediately attracted to her. I singled her out for an introduction and, again, luck was with me: the woman in my party knew her well. She called the young girl to the car and I was introduced to her.

     Her name was Shirley and she was sixteen years old. I was 28 and my 10 years at sea had given me a sophisticated attitude towards women. I looked at this young, fresh, and beautiful girl and thought of her as still a child. My hopes for the usual sailor girl romance would have faded away if not for a simple incident. She had just had her picture taken in the photomat and she showed it to me. It captured her freshness and beauty and, in that picture, I did not see a child but a lovely young woman.

     Shirley had three of the pictures. One was for her boy friend, one for her mother, and one for herself. I asked her to have more taken so I could have one but she said she did not have any more money. When I gave her a dime to have more pictures taken, she put the three she already had in my coat pocket. That simple act of putting her hand in my coat pocket changed my destiny.

     I asked Shirley for a date to go to the movies the next day. She agreed and said she would call me so we could decide on a time for me to pick her up. When we parted for the evening, I already knew I was in love with her. I could hardly wait for the next day.

     Shirley did not call as agreed, so I asked a friend of mine to take me to her home. My friend went in to tell Shirley I was waiting for her. Instead of Shirley coming out, her mother appeared. She gave me a good going over, then introduced herself as Shirley's mother. She told me her daughter was allowed only to go out with neighbors of her own age and, then, only with groups.

     I promised Shirley's mother that I would take good care of her daughter if she would let her go to the movies with me. To my surprise, she gave me permission and told me that I was to bring her back before ten that evening. She went back into the house and Shirley came out, wearing the same polka dot dress she had worn the night before. It was very becoming to her.

     We went to the movies and saw Katherine Hepburn in "Spitfire". The movie ended way before ten so we went to Arlington Park, the usual lovers' parking place, on the beach at Mobile Bay. We talked about trivial things for a while, then I proposed to her. I wanted her to know that I loved her and wanted her to be my wife. This question came as a shock to her, but she agreed to think it over. We kissed for the first time, and left to go back to her home.

     We passed a bakery and stopped to buy some strawberry ice cream for her mother. It was not quite ten when we arrived. Shirley's house, a simple three room cottage, was country like and very clean, but it lacked many modern conveniences. We ate the strawberry ice cream in the glow of a kerosene lamp.

     I had time to sit down and discuss my work with her mother. I explained that I was waiting for a ship which would come two days hence, April 6th. I was convinced I had made a good impression on her mother and before I left, I asked her if I could take Shirley to visit a Filipino American family that was living in Mobile.

     This visit was important to me for I wanted Shirley to see what the children of a mixed marriage look like. The family, the Burtanogs, had a very good reputation among many Mobilians. The children, five girls and three boys,were almost all grown. Several had their own families. The father, a Filipino, had resided in Mobile for many years. He had been employed at the Alabama Shipyard since before World War I. Shirley enjoyed her visit and if she saw anything disagreeable to her, she did not express it.

     We left the Burtanogs and went back to Arlington Park. I repeated my offer of marriage and Shirley said "yes" on the condition that I ask her mother's permission. I gave her the diamond ring I was wearing. We stopped at the same bakery to buy strawberry ice cream and went home. I could not command enough courage to talk to Shirley's mother about marrying her daughter and after some light talk I said goodnight.

     The SS Pan Atlantic arrived the following morning and sailed in the afternoon, with me aboard as chief steward. I did not even see Shirley to say goodby. The Pan Atlantic was on a coastwise run making a 28 day round trip to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, then back to Miami and New Orleans before returning to Mobile. I wrote Shirley from every port.

     In Baltimore, I wrote her mother asking her consent to marry Shirley. In New Orleans, the letter which I had been anxiously awaiting came, but it was not from Shirley's mother. It was from Shirley herself. She wrote that her mother had given her consent.

     I immediately wired Shirley some money for her wedding needs, then asked the Captain for permission to join the ship in Mobile. I told him I was going to get married. The captain gave me his permission and good wishes, and I caught the next bus to Mobile and my future wife.

     I arrived in Mobile late in the afternoon and went straight to Shirley's home. It was then I met Toby, Shirley's only brother. He was the breadwinner of the family, several years younger than I. We hit it off at once, as the saying goes, and until his death, over 50 years later, we never had a cross word.

     Shirley was out in a nearby field playing when I arrived at her house and her mother hollered for her to come home. I was shocked when I saw her. What I saw was a typical American girl just coming out of her childhood. Her blonde hair was disheveled, her clothes were in disarray, and her face and hands were dirty. She was equally surprised and perhaps embarrassed to see me. To a man who had travelled to many parts of the world and had dated grown women, Shirley did not present a romantic figure, much less that of a bride to be. Her hurried change to a more presentable appearance somewhat improved the situation.

     As there was no hotel in Prichard, her mother asked me to spend the night our wedding eve with them. I shared Toby's bed. Sleep was impossible. I could not erase from my mind the picture of Shirley as she came running in from the fields.

     The moon was full that night. I went to the back of the house and sat on the steps, debating whether I should marry this child. I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. It was Shirley who had come to see what was wrong. I just told her that I could not sleep. Shirley sat down with me for awhile and we talked about our coming wedding. I soon settled down and went back to bed beside her brother. Finally, I fell asleep.

     May 3rd. Toby absented himself from his job to accompany us to get our marriage license. Local ordinance required a medical certificate signed by the examining doctor three days before the issuance of a marriage license. The three of us went to a doctor who proved to be sympathetic to our situation. I explained to him that my ship was coming to Mobile the next day and would sail the day after. We wanted to be married before I had to sail away again. He examined me and predated a medical certificate.

     To get the marriage license, we needed someone who could verify that he knew us, so we went to the ship chandler who knew me and asked him to go with us. He agreed and hurried with Toby, Shirley, and me and the predated medical certificate to the courthouse to get the license.

     Shirley had already arranged for a preacher to marry us and she called him after we obtained our marriage license. She was told that he would be performing a funeral service that evening, so we would have to find another preacher.

     Shirley's mother suggested that we go to one of her uncles who was an ordained minister. So, on the afternoon of May 3, 1934, our wedding party, consisting of Shirley's mother and brother, one of her girl friends, and a married cousin went to her grand uncle's. We found him out in the field plowing and told him of our mission. He accompanied us into his house and, after washing up, he called Toby and Shirley's girl friend, thinking it was they who wanted to get married. He was so surprised when he was told that it was Shirley and I who were to be married, that he was momentarily speechless.

Wedding Photos - Click each photo to enlarge.

Felipe Morales Reyes

Shirley Mae Pruette Reyes

     It was time for me to meet some other members of Shirley's large family, most of whom were residents of Prichard. We first drove in my rented car to her maternal grandfather, H. M. Cochran. He was a well known and respected business man. My new mother in law introduced me to her father. "Papa, this is Felipe, Shirley Mae's husband".

     I was immediately attracted to him. The twinkle of his eyes, his friendly smile and his soft voice reminded me of Mr. Hall. We talked awhile and when he told me in a joking way to keep Shirley "barefooted and pregnant all the time", I knew I had been accepted. We called him "Big Daddy" and I learned to love him. From that day until his death in 1945, Big Daddy and I never exchanged a cross word.

     This was not the case with one of Shirley's four uncles, Shirley Cochran. He was the most prominent and reputedly the richest man in Prichard, as well as the most powerful political figure, though he never ran for any elective office. When he was told that Shirley, his namesake, was going to marry a foreign seaman, he blew his top and told his sister, my mother in law, that no good would come out of our marriage. Shirley told me later that they had exchanged some very harsh words. So deep was her anger that she would not set foot in his house again until after our first baby was born and he sent for her. She told him then to take a good look so he could see for himself that our baby did not have a tail.

     We spent our wedding night in another room of Shirley's house. No reception and no honeymoon. My ship arrived the next day Friday and we sailed on Saturday. We spent only two days together as man and wife before I had to leave. I decided, right then and there, to make only one more trip, get off the ship, and get a foreign run trip because, besides the wages being 30 dollars higher, the ships on foreign runs stayed longer in Mobile than the coastwise ones.

     I left Shirley on the dock, waving good by to me. I had left sweethearts and girl friends on the docks waving good by to me before, but this time I had left a bride. The twenty eight days passed like an eternity. I managed to pass the time less forlornly because I knew I was to get off at the end of the voyage, and it would be days or maybe weeks before I would get another ship on a foreign run.