NO ONE elopes in an era of sexual freedom. Couples spend 15 months or more planning weddings that impoverish them for years. They don’t feel the need to run off. They don’t get married secretly because of unexpected pregnancy or urgent desire. Hardly anyone asks for permission from parents to marry anyway. The very idea of eloping now seems antiquated and foreign. It belongs to a distant era, along with arranged marriages and dowries.

The secret, rushed wedding of the past wasn’t a proper way to marry, but many couples who eloped stayed married. Here is one woman’s story of just such a wedding.

THE DAY MY PARENTS ELOPED

By Lois Wauson

My parents, Bertie Lee Goode and Lawrence Zook, eloped on May 28, 1931. It was a common practice in the Depression for couples to just “run off and get married.” They would go find a preacher and get married. No big fanfare or celebration. There was not much money for big weddings, so a couple would go in to town to the nearest preacher or justice of the peace, get married then go home.

In this case, Bertie Lee was scared of her father, Earl Goode. He knew Lawrence was courting his oldest daughter, but, he wasn’t ready for any of his children marry. Although she was 20 years old, and had a mind of her own, Earl was the boss in the home. Bertie Lee loved and respected her father. As Bertie Lee would tell her side of the story many years later; she thought maybe it was because she was such a hard worker. She was the oldest of 10 children, and helped take care of the younger ones, and her mother was expecting another baby soon. Her mother, Lavonia, relied on her a lot. Bertie Lee also worked in the fields, picking cotton, and helping during hay season, plus milking cows and any other farm work there was.

When Lawrence came along, a handsome, bachelor, 30 years old, who lived down the road, he became good friends with her younger brother, William, 19 years old. William went to dances and in to town with Lawrence and came back telling Lawrence’s stories of his travels to Kansas, California, and many places Bertie Lee only dreamed of. And he had been to college! (it was only one semester at Kansas State). She thought he was so debonair and good looking. This was several months after she had seen him from a distance, chasing his pigs down at his farm. She called him that “hog farmer”. She didn’t want anything to do with him. Finally one New Years Eve he and William asked her to go with them to a dance. The time was December 31, 1930. With his hat cocked over his eye, and his overcoat on, and muffler thrown around his neck, she thought he was the handsomest man she had ever seen.

The courtship went on for several months and finally in May, 1931, they decided to elope. Bertie Lee was afraid to tell anyone. The day before they got married, Lawrence went with her brother William into the nearest town, Floresville, Texas, to buy her wedding dress. This had to be done in secret. No one else knew. Bertie Lee had to trust that Lawrence knew what to pick out. He bought a beautiful gold colored silk flowered dress that hung just below her knees. It was just what she wanted. She felt like a princess in the dress. She changed at a friend’s house, and that night, May 27, 1931, they went into Floresville to get married by a justice of the peace. William stood up with them.

Bertie Lee didn’t come home that night. She spent her wedding night at Lawrence’s house. Everyone in the Goode family knew what must have happened. No one said a word. Not one person in the Goode family talked about why Bertie Lee didn’t come home. She was always home early. The next morning a car came driving up the lane, with Bertie Lee, her black hair flying, and her gold flowered wedding dress fluttering, and Lawrence with his hat tilted over on the side of his head. The newlyweds broke the news to the family. No one was surprised. My Aunt Fay who was a young girl, said she thought her sister was the luckiest girl alive and so beautiful as she saw her riding in the car.

All of Bertie Lee’s younger sisters thought she looked so pretty and were so jealous. Some of the older ones were quite miffed, because Bertie Lee wasn’t there to help with the chores and take care of the younger ones. Some of their memories are of how “Bertie Lee thought she was so smart, “with her hair and dress flying, riding in that car…and she didn’t have to help them with the farm chores”.

Even Bertie Lee said later, she felt guilty leaving her mother with all those kids and work to do. What they didn’t realize, was that Bertie Lee hadn’t really left the work and drudgery behind. She had acquired a lot more responsibility. She was marrying a farmer and the next 25 years were the hardest years of her life. She was a farmer’s wife; it was during the hard depression days of the 30’s and the drought stricken years of the 40’s and 50’s. She also had eight children. And she got pregnant right away after she got married.

Just as she feared, her father was very angry. For nearly a year, after getting into a fight with Lawrence several weeks after the wedding, and Lawrence hitting him, Earl Goode didn’t speak to him. He wouldn’t go near the farm. He would go to the gate, and if Bertie Lee wanted to see him, she could come down to the gate. Even when my grandpa found out that my mother was going to have a baby, the two men did not speak until the day their baby was born, 9 months later on March 11, 1932. That night, Earl Goode drove over to the Zook farm, went in the house, and shook Lawrence’s hand, then held his first grandchild. The two men sat and looked at a tiny baby’s face, taking turns holding her, forgetting all their bitterness and hatred. And my mother was so happy. Finally the two men who meant so much to her was speaking!

The two men stayed friends for over 30 years, until my grandpa died. A baby brought reconciliation to a family. Her name was Lois Eva. That baby was me.

Lois Wauson is retired and lives in Floresville, Texas.

Please follow and like us: