In 1936 I got $50 from Sears as a bonus for their 50th year in business. I wanted to buy a used dining-room set for the family, but my mother wouldn’t let me. She said I had to spend it on myself, and I wanted something that would last.
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But now we were living in Austin, so in 1937 I went to Austin High. I took an English-literature course two nights a week.
The second night of the course this guy walks in and takes the seat in front of me. He hadn’t been in class the first night. So the teacher told him that since he was late, she would like him to write a list of the books he’d read.
I said, “So what?”
I said, “Oh, just a group of girls. We walk home together.” They came out, and I introduced him–and he just walked along with us. So every night it was the usual thing that he would walk along with us.
We all went into the drugstore, and he got his cigarettes for his mother and went home. I sat down at the table and I said, “Vince asked me out.”
She said, “Well, I wish he’d asked me.”
