The Honeymooners Meet the Fire Chief

You know as I look back, it’s hard to realize my wife and I have been married for over fifty years, my how time do fly when you’re having fun. Why it seems like only yesterday when we both were driving school buses.

We met through a mutual friend. She was just finishing high school, and I had finished two years before. She was going to Ellerbe High School, and I had graduated from Rockingham High School.

We dated for a year or so and decided to tie the knot. Why it seemed we were made for each other. We planned our wedding down to the last detail, including our honeymoon.

As with a lot of newly married couples, there wasn’t much money left for a honeymoon. I was working for the state D.O.T. and she had landed a job as a secretary. Out of the goodness of his heart my wife’s boss had loaned us his beach house at Ocean Drive for free.

Well, the wedding went off like clockwork, although I did make the mistake of telling my new brothers-in-laws to have our car pulled in front of the church. When we came out of the church, our car had totally been altered. Why it had two long strings of tin cans tied to the back bumper; “Just Married” painted on both sides of the car and on the left front fender were the words,” Sock- it- to Me.” Don’t forget the last words, for they will come up again in this here story.

We already had the car packed and after the reception. Off we went to Ocean Drive. Back then, to get to O.D. from Rockingham, you would travel down Highway 38 to Bennettsville to catch #9 and on down to O.D. Back then won’t a bypass around Bennettsville and Highway #38 took you right through downtown. When you got to the courthouse, you had to stop and go left or right. Just as my wife and I were a block from that intersection, a car ran a stop sign and ran right into us. You guessed it, right where the words were painted “Sock-it-to Me”. Why the collision knocked us off the road and over the curb. Steam and the smell of brakes were all in the air.

Only by the Grace of God, nobody was hurt, although our car was undrivable. The elderly gentleman who hit us was very apologetic and wanted to know if we were hurt. We told him we were shook up, but we thought we were okay.

Won’t but just a second a police car drives up and out jumps this Barney Fife looking policeman with a pair of fancy cowboy boots on. “Any ya’ll folks hurt?” he said in his southern drawl. Well, we told him we thought we were okay, but we were on our honeymoon and now we had a torn-up car. What were we gonna do?

After the police officer checked things out, he told us to get in his cruiser, he would take us to the police station, and we could call someone.

When we got to the station, my wife called her parents. That’s when the crying began, don’t you know. Well, she told them what happened and that we were okay, but we needed a car.

While we were waiting for a car, the policeman told us that a trial on the accident would be held the following day and that he could put us up for the night, but we would have to sleep in separate cells. What kinda deal was this? Being from another state, we didn’t know what to expect ‘cause we found out that the man who hit us was the Fire Chief of Bennettsville.

Finally, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend brought us a car, and we couldn’t wait to get back to Richmond Co. By the way, we spent the first night of our honeymoon in a motel in Rockingham.

The next day. found us back in Bennettsville in front of a judge. We were representing ourselves and the Fire Chief was represented by his son.

The judge called the trial to order and the Chief’s son stood up to say something. The judge promptly told him to sit down. The judge then told the elderly Fire Chief to stand up. The judge didn’t say anything but held out his hand. The Chief reached into his back pocket, pulled out his billfold and handed the judge his driving license. Come to find out that was the third or fourth time the Chief had run a stop sign and run into someone.

You know I felt kind’a sorry for the old gentleman for losing his license, but if he kept running stop signs sure enough, he was going to kill somebody, don’t you know. He again apologized to us for running into us and messing up our honeymoon.

Folks, that reminds me, my wife and I still have not gotten around, in these fifty years, to taking a real honeymoon.