Chapter Seven

Time To Leave The Farm




Bernice Foukal's Senior Class photo.

She caught a ride with the parents of one of the other three girls who were also going to the same school in Montgomery. Bernice wrote her first letter home June 8, 1957. She had a part-time job already, keeping the books, files, typing invoices and letters for the Southeastern Sales Company. The job paid $85.00 a month working 1:00PM to 5:00PM, Monday through Friday. Her school hours were 8:00AM till 12:15PM giving her just forty-five minutes for lunch. To speed up her studies, she was also going to night school Monday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 till 9:00PM. The school had arranged a place for girls to stay that was within two city blocks of where the classes were held. A cafeteria where they could eat was about halfway between the place where they lived and the classes so everything was within two blocks walking distance. Bernice was very pleased with her accommodations. There were four girls and four beds and a big private bathroom. Her cost was $52.90 a month for room and board. There was a curfew of 11:00PM weekdays and 12:00PM on Friday and Saturday nights. She gave her folks a phone number where she could be reached and when was the best time to reach her with her busy schedule. This first letter home got a lot of mileage because Rose sent it on to her folks in Idaho as well, they sent it on to Lydia in California, and then it came back to Silverhill for filing for future reference. Bernice's grandparents in Idaho wrote to her August 23rd, acknowledging a letter she had sent them. They closed their letter with the words, Love to our brave girl.

In another letter Bernice mentioned meeting a nice boy named Walter Ness from Philadelphia. He was in the Air Force stationed at Maxwell AFB. He was a musician and stood 6'4". She also mentioned she had a ride home for the 4th of July weekend with a boy from Robertsdale named Jordan Cooper. She also spent a fun weekend up in the Birmingham area. She went with her friend Betty and her mother. She wrote home July 21st and told of her first date since coming to Montgomery. She doubled dated with a friend named Wanda, who went with Jordan, and she went with a friend of Jordans named Ken. No height given on Ken in the letter, but they went to see the movie, The Ten Commandments.

Bernice came prepared to learn and that is what she did right from the start. When the summer session was over she changed jobs. In July she got a job working from 1:00 to 5:00PM Monday through Friday in a Real Estate and Insurance Office called Tom Henley Co. She said in a letter this place was closer and clearer than the first job, but the pay was only $15.00 a week. The boss was out of the office about half of the time and she answered the phone and took messages for him. She also typed letters, wrote checks, filed, and kept the books for the insurance part of the business. She had her own desk and keys to the office. She enjoyed working in the air-conditioned office and the fact that she was doing something different.

She wrote a letter home August 12th and said she had gotten letters from several of her boyfriends. Charlie was engaged and planning to marry soon. Her Navy boyfriend, Stu, was overseas but returning for three days in September. He was trying to get her to come up to Washington, D.C. to see him when he came there. There was another one from a guy named Harry. Poor girl, so unpopular with the guys, eh. Her next letter home was just four days later. She described a date she had with a boy from Maryland who was in the Air Force stationed in Montgomery. His name was Stan and she had met him at a dance. Her friend Betty from Silverhill went with his friend. That dance was held at the YMCA which was located within the two block area between where she lived and where she learned. They had a dance there every Tuesday night. How convenient! She had started working on her second practice set in accounting at school and she found it a lot harder than the first one that she had completed. She was almost finished with the first three months in school. Her grades must have been pretty good the first grade period because she was going to send her report card to Idaho for her grandparents to see it.

Before the month of August was over, Bernice attended another dance at the YMCA and met another boy. His name was Charles Lloyd Escue but he went by the name Lloyd. One thing that Bernice saw in this fellow right away was ambition. He seemed right away to be what she had dreamed about for a husband, but this was no dream. She felt like he saw her as a dream come true also. She wrote to her folks about him three times in September. She asked in the first one if it was okay to bring him home one weekend so they could meet him. She said in another that he had asked her to go steady with him but she had said "no for now". She felt at her age, going steady was getting a little serious and she would want her parents to meet him first. There was a little PS at the bottom of this letter that read, You know mom, Lloyd is a great guy and a good Christian. He wants to get ahead too. Another was written on September 8, 1957. They had gone to church together at the Capitol Heights Baptist Church and that afternoon they went to the Montgomery Airport to look at some airplanes. They attended church Sunday night also. Bernice's comment in the letter, I really enjoy going with him, Lloyd Escue.

They made a trip the first weekend in October to Silverhill so Bernice could introduce Lloyd to her family. Her family liked him from the start. For anyone whoever met the man, what was there not to like? On Columbus Day, October 12, 1957, Lloyd and Bernice became engaged to be wed.

Lloyd worked for Western Electric, installing microwave equipment, and had to travel an awful lot of the time. He began working in Tuscaloosa the week after they had made their trip down to Silverhill but he managed to get back to Montgomery on weekends. He left his car with Bernice as he used a company vehicle on business. October 24th Bernice sent her parents a card for their 21st wedding anniversary. At this point she didn't know what her wedding date would be but she was giving it her all to make it as soon as possible. She wrote a letter home October 26th and said that she was going up to Tennessee to meet Lloyd's family the first weekend of November. Her details about the trip that parents would want to hear included,

His family asked me and also he did. I bet it will be a lot of fun. I'm going to room with his sister, Ann, who is two days older than me.

When the day for the trip arrived, Bernice drove Lloyd's car to Tuscaloosa and picked him up from work at 5:00PM when he got off. Then they were off to Brownsville, Tennessee in Haywood County, about 25 miles west of Jackson. Bernice thought she had come from a humble environment but when she arrived at the Escue home she felt she had stepped back at least twenty years in time. The family was very nice to her. Lloyd was the oldest of ten children, eight boys and two girls. The house had only two bedrooms, one for the parents and one for the boys. Both of the girls had to sleep in the living room so Bernice joined them when it was time to bed down. Now from what you have just read, what would you be thinking if you were Bernice? Well she was not thinking that way so there is more to this story, and it does include Lloyd.

On the drive back to Montgomery from the weekend trip to Tennessee, Lloyd and Bernice talked about their dreams, their ambitions, their families, and their lives prior to meeting each other. The trip seemed so short because there was just so much to talk about. They both had a wonderful sense of humor and they both shared so many of the same ideals. Whenever they were together, they continued talking about these subjects and they came to know so much about each other. There became no doubt in either of their minds that each of them had found what they had dreamed and hoped for in life.

They both went to Silverhill for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Bernice went down on the bus on Wednesday but Lloyd had to work on Friday so he drove down to Silverhill on Friday night after work. They both drove back to Montgomery together on Sunday.

School was out during Christmas so Bernice was planning to be home as much of that time as she could. She gave her notice where she worked part-time and her boss asked her to finish up some things before she left. He gave her a $20.00 bonus for staying a little longer than she had wanted to stay. She got to be at home December 21st till the 29th. Lloyd only had one day off for Christmas and he went to be at home with his family. Bernice and her mom did a lot of shopping for her coming wedding while she was home. They also lined up a photographer. Lloyd was being transferred back to Montgomery December 30th so Bernice went back then also. Her last day to work was January 14, 1958. She then returned to school and finished all her studies and assignments to the point that she could take a few weeks off for the wedding and a short honeymoon. Lloyd wrote to her February 5th and closed the letter with, "Please don't let anything happen to you before Friday. Love is something you don't find every day". They had set the date for the big event, February 8, 1958.