By Charlotte Byus
My Mom and Dad, Mickie and Mervin, met at a dance in downtown Houston on Thanksgiving night, 1930. They both loved to dance and it was a marriage made for Saturday night dancing for 50 years. In April of 1931 they decided to get married and drove to Lake Charles with their best friends and eloped. Mom always said it was a hard decision what to wear. Her new dress, her blue dress, or the one she wore last, you see they were all the same dress. She only had one nice dress. I never found out why they eloped and now there is no one to ask, darn.
Momma worked as a silk finisher for the Warwick Hotel and Daddy had just purchased his parent’s grocery story on White Oak Drive, Heights Houston, Texas. Daddy was good at pressing and dry cleaning and his Dad had died from a stroke. His stroke was brought on by trying to start a Model T. He was trying to crank the car when the crank came back and hit him, he did not live through the back fire. So they opened Hendrix’s Cleaning & Pressing. What we are going through is very similar to what they were living through back then. 24-7 with each other, they lived and worked together. Our garage apartment was just behind the cleaning shop. Every morning Daddy would take his coffee and open the shop at 6 am. Mom would get Dolores and/or me ready for school at Harvard Elementary. You see Daddy, Dolores and I all went to the same elementary. Boy, is that another story because Daddy did not like to go by the rules.
Anyway back to the original story, Mom and Dad lived most of their lives in Houston and when Mom had pneumonia for the 7th time the doctors said she needed to leave Houston for a drier climate. They, along with my sister and brother-in-law purchased property in Blanco on the Blanco River.
For their 50th anniversary in April we had a lovely party at the house. Daddy loved parties and Mom thought it was too much trouble but she loved every minute. Daddy passed away July 11th of that year from a blood clot in his heart. So glad we have that party and memories.
[April-27-2020]
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