Married at "15"

My friends and I had a favorite place to hang out in the small town next to ours. It was a pizza place that had live music on Fridays and Saturdays. They had Foosball tables, air hockey tables, pool tables and would serve you beer if you were 18 or if you had an I.D. that "said" you were 18. My friend and I either looked much older than we were, had great fake I.D.'s, or there was no fear of the consequences of serving beer to minors by the owner. So now we have found a place where we can "rebel" in public. This would prove to give us exposure to a whole new world. So, there we were. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and every night in between that we could find a ride there. As I sat there one Friday night, beer and cigarette in hand (waiting to play the next game) "HE" walked in the door. And friends, my head was not the only one that turned. He was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!! Blond hair and the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen!!!!!!!! AND low and behold he was looking at me. Chills ran down my body like rain. I just had to talk to him. It wasn't long before we found ourselves sitting at the same table. The table we all sat at if we were waiting to play the next game or shoot some pool. I would be 15 in a few months and I was falling in love and we hadn't even spoken a word. A determined young (lady) girl I was, so it didn't take me long to find a reason to strike up conversation with him. We exchanged names and had light conversation. I can only assume he thought I was older than I was because I had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Dear Lord, I prayed. Please let me see this man again. I say man because I would soon find out that he was 22. Oh well, age didn't matter to me if it didn't matter to him. After spending several hours there together that night we decided to meet there again the next day. Seeing him became like a drug to me. A drug I could not live without. I was hooked and I loved it. Mind you that my mother hated him and our relationship. He was seven years older than me and she knew this was going to be nothing but trouble. But who cared what she thought. She just didn't want me to be happy. She took me away from my dad and now she was trying to take me away from the love of my life. Not gonna let that happen mom. No way-No how!!! She did everything she could to make seeing him difficult for me but by this time I had mastered the art of rebellion and she didn't stand a chance. We were two rebels ready to take on the world. I turned 15 in February and we saw each other almost every day. If we couldn't see each other we would talk on the phone for hours. By mid-summer we were quite a hot item. I knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. If this is what love is, then "I'M ALL IN"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We spent our days listening to Rod Stewart and getting high. Dreaming of our future together. Where we would live? How many children we would have? Or maybe we would just live on the road going from one place to another seeing the world together. My dream came true in late August. He asked me to marry him. That is when the real trouble started. You see, my mom hated him. He was 7 years older than me and his appearance to her was that of someone that was "BUCK WILD". Which was no secret to me. We were both buck wild and having the time of our lives. We set the date for October. I soon found out that I was too young to get married without my parents consent in every state but South Carolina. There I only had to be 15 so I passed that test by the skin of my teeth. My mom was furious! Between August and October she realized that I was going to do this with or without her blessing. So a week or so before our chosen date she gave in and said she would ride to South Carolina with us. Maybe she thought she still had a chance of talking me out of it as long as we hadn't said our vows yet. But I was not about to let that happen. On October the 4th 1974 we all made a trip to South Carolina, his mother included. No tension in that car!! If I remember correctly it was about a 4 hour drive down and 4 hrs back. A long time to be in a vehicle with the enemy. As I repeated my vows to him I knew I would love him until the world came to an end. It was euphoric. The happiest day of my life. Walking out of the office of the Justice of the Peace at "age 15" married to the man of my dreams. "Another lesson better left unlearned".