Getting Married - by Fran Green
For a long time I have thought about writing the story of how Bob Green and I got married. We met the summer of 1963 and I think it is safe to say that for both of us it was love at first sight.
At the end of the summer, I returned to start my Junior year at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Bob left via the C&O Railroad to start his Freshman year at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY. By then my parents were quite familiar Bob and he had spent the night at our house before boarding the train.
I was re-settling into campus life when, about a week later, I received a call on the dorm floor telephone. (Phones were at the end of each floor so someone passing by would answer it and contact the person being called.)
Bob was calling me to tell me he had been expelled from the ultra-conservative Baptist college for having a beer party in his dorm room. The administrators could not believe that he had been able to buy beer on his own. They wanted him to say who it was that bought the beer for him which he could not do as he was really the one who bought it, using a fake ID.
After having a dozen yellow roses delivered to my dorm room he told me he would be taking a job with Export Leaf Tobacco Company in Richmond and would start classes at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI).
Being madly in love we started back and forth weekend trips to and from Richmond and Williamsburg. Our relationship intensified during that time as we got to know each other better. His friends became my friends and my friends became his. Since neither of us had a car, our trips were by bus (me) and hitchhiking (Bob).
I would sign out of the dorm indicating I would be staying with Allen and Page Carver in Richmond. Allen was a high school buddy of Bob’s and they had an actual house and a baby girl. Of course, that is not where I stayed. Hotel Richmond was our preferred destination and I still have a small cake of hotel soap still in its original wrapper. I know I have it, but I am not sure where it is.
I spent the January semester break with Bob and when we were on the city bus heading to the Bus Station so I could go back to Williamsburg, one of us said, “Why don’t we get married?” We do not remember which one of us said it, but the other said, “Why not?” In all honesty I believe we had fears that a Richmond Police Officer might barge into the apartment Bob shared with two other guys and arrest us for fornication. Yes, that was illegal in Virginia at that time.
Now the problem was, how could we do it? We really had no idea, but since I was headed back to school it was left to Bob to make the arrangement for the next weekend. When I came back Friday after classes he told me a friend from Charlottesville would pick us up and take us to North Carolina to get married.
Indeed, David McNish showed up with his mother’s car after dark. She did not know he had “borrowed” her car, but we loaded ourselves in and headed to North Carolina since we were pretty certain we were too young to get married in Virginia.
Dave drove us over the border to Roanoke Rapids. We drove through the main part of town and found a house with a sign indicating a judge lived there. We rang the doorbell and it was answered by his wife. He also came to the door and explained that we would need to get a blood test in order to acquire a marriage license. He also told us that the county office would not be open on Saturday so we would have to go to the next county over.
Now that presented quite a problem. Dave needed to get his mother’s car back to Charlottesville before morning since she did not know he was driving it. The solution was for him to take us to the bus station where we could get a bus to Warrington in the next county early in the morning. So, we spent the night on a bench in the bus station. Since we had no luggage with us and no change of clothes, we shared my toothbrush and hairbrush. In the morning we boarded a bus to Warrington and when we arrived it was snowing. We were directed to the courthouse where a janitor let us in to get warm.
We were running low on money after the bus ticket so Bob went to a bank to cash his paycheck. Fortunately, Warrington was a tobacco town and the banker was familiar with the company name on the check (Export Leaf Tobacco Co.) so we were able to have a little bit of money. It was enough to take a taxi to the hospital for a blood test, and then back to the courthouse to obtain a marriage license. Then we were directed to a small building where there was a Justice of the Peace and a Witness. The building was a store that sold bags of coal for fireplaces and stoves. The wedding was brief and we did not have rings to exchange, but we did walk out with a Certificate of Marriage from the State of North Carolina. It was February 8, 1964.
We looked for a place to get something to eat and noticed a picket line with protesters walking in a circle. Being liberals we joined in for a while then spotted a café where we had grilled cheese sandwiches. Fortunately we had already gotten a bus ticket from Warrington back to Richmond because when we got back we had less than a dollar left between us. The next day was Sunday and I headed back to Williamsburg with an exciting secret.
We needed to keep our marriage secret because W&M would not allow married students to live in the dorms where we might have a negative effect on the virginal female students. I believe I did tell my roommates and my buddy Mat but no one else yet.
Back in Richmond, Bob’s sister was a nursing student and she became suspicious and told her mother she thought we had gotten married. So, on a Saturday afternoon we had a call from Elsie asking if we had gotten married. Bob told her, yes, and she said if we did not tell my parents immediately she would call them. Our secret was out!
My parents owned a shoe store (The Shoe Box) in Covington, VA. I knew they would be closing at 5:00 so I waited a few minutes and called them. I told them Bob and I had gotten married. One parent said, “Frances, are you pregnant?”
“No” I answered. The other said, “Frances, were you drunk?” Again, I could honestly say, “No.”
We have now been married 56 years. I completed my degree in Philosophy at William and Mary. Bob graduated from RPI with a degree in Psychology. He went on to complete a Masters in Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University (formerly RPI) and then a PhD in Family Studies at Virginia Tech.
It was not until a number of years later that we realized our wedding date (February 8) was the same day my parents had eloped in 1941.
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Fran Green grew up in western Virginia, graduated from The College of William and Mary and followed a career path into retail buying and management. She and her husband Bob moved to Fort Collins in 2013 to be closer to their son and his family, including 3 granddaughters. She and Bob have always been dog people. She is also a goat person, a musician and, when she finds the time, she writes
