It has been over 65 years since I thought of Jimmie. He holds no significance in my life except that he was there for a brief period. I was 17 years old and ready for my life to begin. I was ready for love and love seemed to be everywhere. The years of the 16 and 17 year old Louella were all about exploration, and mostly dancing and finding someone to call my own. Some one who would love me forever. The boys were plentiful back then and they were just as innocent and just as eager as the girls. Sex had not yet reared it's head on our horizon. Oh there was the occasional stolen kiss and the fumbled attempts at "copping a feel", but that was as far as it went. Most of the dates were "double dates", because very few of the boys had access to a car back then.
And then came Jimmie. Jimmie was older. Jimmie had been in the Army. Jimmie had a car. He was the cool boy who stood on the sidelines with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. It was rumored that he had a wife and son back in England. That just added to the mystic of Jimmie. Sadly it very soon became common knowledge that Jimmie was the love 'em and leave 'em kind. Pretty little teenagers following him with their red eyes soon became a common sight at the record hop. And then he looked my way!
He took me to his house to meet his mom and sister. He showed me a picture of his wife and son. Looking back in retrospect, I am not sure it was anything but a picture from a magazine, but it added to the legend that was Jimmie. He did not appear old enough to have spent a lot of time in the Army, but he said it so that made it so. I, of course, was holding my sexual favors back in hopes of a wedding ring. I sure did not want to be one of the sad little creatures watching him from afar. He soon tired of me. And as time would tell, God above smiled on me the day he broke my heart. I had given him a picture to put on the dash of his car and he threw it out the window explaining to me that I was too immature for him.
Jimmie quit coming to the dances. No one seen him, but we heard through the grapevine that he was working out of town and he gradually faded from our memories we all moved on.
When I married and moved out of town and began my own family, mother kept me up on all the gossip. She sent newspaper clippings of happenings that involved the circle of friends that she knew I hung out with. One day there was a clipping about a nurse who lived in a trailer outside of town with her husband and two small children. Someone had come to her trailer while her husband was at work and killed her two children and thrown them into the field. He then raped her. He did not kill her. They had a lead as to his identity. It was Jimmie.
I am sure people back home remember the headlines. I do not remember all the details of the trial, but he was definitely the same Jimmie I knew and he was definitely guilty. I could google it and find out, but I do not care. I only know how lucky my friends and I were that we had all dated him and we were all alright. This just goes to show that mother was right about another thing. She always said "You never know anyone, you only know OF them. You know what they let you see."
That happened 65 years ago and I read about it at some point in time, but God in his wisdom left me untouched. Not just me, but many of my friends. This is something I have not thought about for many, many years, but today I thank God for bringing me through a lot of valleys to this wonderful life I now live in Pueblo. Colorado!
Brings me to this song which pretty much says it all. Unanswered Prayers
