<Begin Segment 12>

AI: So, so what happened then?

PB: So she wanted me to go with her to Idaho, so I thought it was perfectly okay, and this fellow that was gonna drive us had a new Chevrolet at that time. It was quite a thing to have a new car. And this fellow that my mother liked had a Ford, an older Ford. Well, Mother liked him because he was upper-class, and he would come out to the country and chop wood, and then he'd help around the house, and he was a perfect gentleman. And if we went anywhere, my mother always chaperoned me. She never let me go alone. In those days, you had to have a chaperone; if you went to a dance, why, you'd have a chaperone. Anywhere I went, Mother went along as a chaperone. So anyhow, this fellow said he would drive, so...

AI: The fellow with the Chevrolet.

PB: Uh-huh. So we went... at the same time, this other fellow that my mother liked, had gone to California on a business trip. So when he came back from California, I was gone. They were rivals, the two fellows were rivals, and anyhow, we went to Idaho, and I think we burned up an engine, or something was burned up in the car, and we couldn't get a replacement for it; we had to send to Boise for it, and it would take a day or so before we could get it. So we had to stay over in Nampa, Idaho. And then my sister was gonna stay there and get married, so I had to come back. But in the meantime, I don't know whether we didn't tell my parents where we were going or what, but they had reported me missing, because we didn't come back on schedule like we were supposed to. So when I came back, we were in a lot of trouble.

AI: So Nellie stayed in Idaho, and you came back, the fellow drove the both of you back into town.

PB: Uh-huh. But the part in there, I don't remember anything about it. It was a part in my life, like certain parts of my life, very unpleasant things that happened, it's a total blank. I don't remember anything about it, whether we stayed, we must have stayed overnight somewhere, and I don't remember a thing about it. I don't know what happened, but anyhow, when I got back, I was in a lot of trouble, or he was in a lot of trouble for taking me across the state line, for one thing.

AI: So, because in other words, you were still a minor.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And he had then driven you back and forth outside of Washington state, then back into Washington state. And on the way back, the two of you were driving back without Nellie, so you were without a chaperone, and by the time you came back, of course, your parents had reported you missing, so, so then he must have been possibly in trouble with the law at that point.

PB: Yes, he was. Whether he was jailed or what they did with him, I don't know anything about that, I don't remember anything. But I know that I was put in a detention home, and I think I was there overnight, but minister said I didn't belong in there, and he wanted me out of there, so he took me in, took me to his home.

AI: Was this Reverend Murphy?

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And so, when Reverend Murphy came and got you, what kind of counsel did he give you?

PB: Well, he said that I must get married, or I should get married, otherwise this man would go to jail, and that's all he talked about. That I should get married and save him from going to jail.

AI: That must have been quite a shock to you.

PB: Well, it's...

AI: The whole, the whole experience.

PB: Yes, it was. It was, I was totally unprepared. I had no idea, I had nothing like idea of getting married or anything like that, 'cause I was only sixteen or seventeen, I guess I was then. And I was afraid to go home, for one thing, 'cause I knew my mother was very angry with me. I was afraid to go home, I didn't know what to do, so since Reverend Murphy had sort of come to my rescue, I thought I should do what he, he told me that I should do. So I decided to get married, and 'course, that was totally against my mother's wishes.

AI: Well, it was.

PB: Uh-huh. And in the meantime, this other fellow came back from California, found out that I had gone out of state, or I had been taken out of state, and all this mess. And I saw him one day... I was not allowed to leave the Murphy home once I was there. I never went outdoors, I was always in the house. I was upstairs one day, I think, and I was looking out the window, and I saw this other fellow going by the house, and I kept thinking, "Why doesn't he come to my rescue?" [Laughs] That was the thought that stayed in my mind: "Why doesn't he come and, and save me, and get me out of this mess?" But he didn't. I don't know, he probably was pacing back and forth, and trying to make up his mind what to do, I guess.

AI: And this must have been very confusing for you, you were really still a very inexperienced teenager from the countryside.

PB: I was just absolutely lost. I didn't know what to do, I was, I had no idea about getting married. I didn't want to get married, I wanted to go to school yet. And here I had, my schooling was terminated, and I was supposed to get married, and my parents were against it, and everything was such a turmoil that my mind at that time, I think it just totally blanked out. I had no idea what really went on.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.