My Parents Marriage

 The MARRIAGE of DEWEY and WILLIE MAE 

In the Spring of 1933, Dewey Weaver, still single at 29 years old, was a busy man.  He was operating his own successful coal delivery business and he was getting ready for the biggest event of his life.  He had two major task to complete.  First, he needed to find and furnish the right house.  Second, he needed to secure the blessing of Charles Wesley and Georgia Ann Avery Hallman to marry their daughter, Willie Mae.

He found a three room house with a small front porch and a somewhat larger back porch.  In the back yard was a water well, a small stable/chicken house and a privy. It was located just west of the town of Peterson where the road to the Robinson’s farm met the Birmingham Highway.  Today that intersection is called Alabama Highway 216 and Robinson Road.  

He soon had the place minimally furnished.  He put a bed, dresser, and wardrobe in the middle room, and a wood cook stove, table and chairs, some shelves, and a wash stand in the back room. He also acquired some miscellaneous items so he could sleep there and also prepare something to eat.  

Dewey had known Charles Wesley Hallman for many years; first through his father’s business of selling coal and then through running his own coal business.  As was customary in those days, he addressed the Hallmans as Uncle Charlie and Aunt Georgia.  Over the last several months he had spent many hours at their home calling on Willie Mae.  More often than not, these visits usually included long conversations with the parents.  He and Uncle Charlie would discuss the current  status of the coal business, world and community events, and the Bible.  Aunt Georgia usually wanted to know how his business was going and what was going on with his folks.  After a bit, the parents would retire to the kitchen and give the young folks some semi-privacy.  

Eventually, he asked if he could take Willie Mae to a square Dance at the school.  Aunt Georgia readily said. “Yes”, provided that they would be accompanied by her older sister, Ressie, and Ressie’s beau, Andrew.  That worked well for a while, but both couples were tiring of always having to be together.  

Dewey finally got the nerve to ask to take Willie Mae places without the escorts.  Aunt Georgia, asked Dewey to follow her to the kitchen, shut the door, sat him at the table and sat down across from him.  She then gave him a speech which included things like the following:  

Dewey, I have known you and your family for many years.  

In the last few months, I have gotten to known you much better.  

I like you, Charlie likes you.  However, you are a man 

almost twice the age of our young daughter.  

You know so much more about life and the world 

than she has ever imagined.  

I think you are an honorable man and 

I am placing her in your hands.  

When you walk through that door, 

I am trusting you and God with the rest of her life.

After that they were free to go out together without the escorts.  

They were soon making plans for their eventually marriage.  As her 17th birthday drew near they approached her parents for their formal blessing on their plans.  True to her previous words, Aunt Georgia made no objection and she and Uncle Charlie gave their blessing.

Sometime after her 17th birthday, they both went to the Courthouse and got the marriage license.  After that they went shopping.  They got three bags of groceries, some pots, pans and table ware.  They also got a mop, a broom, a dustpan, a washtub, and a rub board.  Dewey paid with a $20 bill and got change back.  

After dropping off their purchases at the house, they headed to Abernant to get Mr. Barkley, the Justice of the Peace, to perform the ceremony.  When they arrived in front of his house, he was coming out his front gate.  They told him what they wanted.  He said he was leaving to perform another wedding down the road, but if they had the license, he could perform their ceremony before he left.  They could just sit where they were.  

He looked over the license, saw a young fellow coming down the road and called him over to act as a witness.  The young fellow climbed up on the running board next to Willie Mae and stuck his head through the open window.  Mr. Barkley put one foot on the running board next to Dewey, laid the license, his Bible and a copy of the  ceremony across his knee, performed the ceremony and pronounced them man and wife.

Then they headed home.

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