Some lucky guys would take their girls to a movie - or to watch the submarine races at Sandbridge - if they were really lucky.
But most of us had plans to go dancing.
We would head down to the oceanfront at Virginia Beach, to Peabody’s or the Peppermint Beach Club to listen to the great sounds of Beach Music.
Bill Deal and the Rhondels was the hot band at the oceanfront, along with the Fat Ammon Band.
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| Bill Deal and the Rhondels |
And then there were the shows with the Temptations, the Four Tops - and the greatest Beach music of all - which came from the Drifters.
Life back then was carefree and wonderful; except for those times when every girl had to experience that broken heart - every time she broke up with her boyfriend.
And that was how I ended up at the last place on earth I thought I would ever be – a Country Music Bar.
It was across the road from Shoneys. It was a nondescript building known as the Green Wheel. A variety of country music bands played there, seven nights a week.
My girlfriends used to laugh about country music. The only time they were forced to endure it was when their parents turned on the radio in the car and there it was.
Oh, what torture!
My sister and her girlfriend had talked me into going to the Green Wheel.They told me the bar really was a fun place, so I decided to give it a try. But after 20 minutes of listening to the whine of the steel guitar and that hillbilly backwoods sounding singer, I left.
Two nights later, more out of boredom than anything, I went back.
My sister had introduced me to Wayne and we became really great friends. We both loved to dance and we took charge of the dance floor at the Green Wheel.
It was on one Tuesday night and I was teaching Wayne this new dance that had just come out; when I noticed the drummer in the band kept watching me. It seemed a little odd the way he was looking at me, after the band leader had announced the engagement of the drummer the night before. But I kept on dancing and put it out of my mind.
A couple of weeks later, the drummer was playing the Green Wheel again. It became obvious that he couldn't keep his eyes off of me every time I was out on the dance floor.
During one of the band's breaks, he was sitting at the end of the bar as I walked by him on the way to the ladies room. I saw him turn on the bar stool watching me as I passed by him.
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| Green Wheel Days |
I did start paying a little more attention to him the rest of the night as he sang and played the drums.
He wasn't my typical kind of guy. I had never dated anyone with red hair and freckles; but when he sang, 'Easy Loving', I got lost in the passion he had for the music he played.
I really wasn't interested in another serious relationship. I just wanted to have fun; and thought dating a musician could certainly be fun - and maybe a little exciting. I decided to give him my phone number before I left that night.
We starting dating shortly after that.
Then one afternoon he called me saying he had something to tell me. I thought he was going to say he got married, but he told me that I needed to know that he was 17 years old and wouldn't be 18 for 2 more months.
It really seemed like a minor detail. At least I knew at this time, he wasn't married and no longer engaged.
So I was 20 years old - 3 years older than Doug was. I thought he seemed mature enough to handle a relationship; and that time would prove it one way or another anyway.
Nine months later, on May 1, 1972, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina; we were married.
to be continued...
