Title Unknown It was August 1978. I had just graduated from Ocean Springs High School and was headed to Delta State University in Cleveland Mississippi. Mama and I loaded up the trunk and the back seat of the Impala and headed for the Delta. It was a hot day and I was moving into Ward Hall, the oldest dorm on campus. As I walked into the front door, girls were passing me moving in their own stuff. My eyes began to adjust to the light and I saw a desk in front of me. Sitting behind the desk was an on-campus security officer with his back to me. Passing the desk, he looked straight at me and grinned. That’s all it took. I stood in front of the desk where he was giving out the keys and said, “Hi. I’m Sarah Beaugez from Ocean Springs,” as I put my hand out to shake his, he said, “Hi. I’m Freddy Kline.” He reached for my hand but his wheat-colored eyes never left mine and he never stopped grinning. I knew then and there that I would have to find a way to get him to ask me out; it was an instant attraction. I had a work-study job in the registrar’s office and with the job I could use DSU’s watts line. Freddy was the one that could hook me up in the dorm. After a week or so of chitchat, I got my nerve up. He had bleached his hair and it was looking a bit scraggly. I was pretty brazen and said, “I think you need a hair cut and I know how to cut hair.” He looked at me, knowing good and well, that I knew nothing about cutting hair. He said all right anyway. We set it up to meet in the back of the Union where the vending machines were located. We found a chair and as he sat down, I got the scissors out. I cannot imagine just what kind of scissors I used. Suffice to say, they were not the kind of scissors used to cut hair. We did not lack words, or at least I did not lack words. Freddy just sat and let me cut all of his hair off. It was three hours worth of cutting; cutting hair and cutting up. We laughed and laughed and talked and laughed some more. I didn’t want to stop because we were having too much fun. After that night, I cannot remember us not being together. He would come pick me up in his Gran Torino. We would ride in between the fields, laughing and talking and listening to music. Neither of us could ever remember the first time that we kissed. We only remember kissing a lot. I felt safe with him. I knew I could trust him. About half way through the first semester, I had, what I considered to be at the time, a travesty. I was born without the two teeth that sit either side of the two front teeth on the top. I had worn braces and subsequently, had a partial with two teeth on it. I was eating something and a tooth broke off. I was devastated. I called mama crying and she just said that I would have to find someone to bring me to the Coast. Freddy was so easy going. I knew he didn’t care whether I had teeth or not! I asked him if he would mind taking me to the Coast. Of course, he did not. On the way, we were so easy together and just laughed and talked all the way down the state of Mississippi. I don’t remember many of the details, but Freddy remembered that I took him to the beach and tried to show him just how good I could throw a cast net. NOT! I didn’t know one thing about throwing that cast net, except watching daddy throw it. BTW: Freddy Kline is the only man in my life that can be put in the same sentence as my daddy, must less be the only other man that was a true spiritual leader to me. Both were/are godly men who just lived out what it meant to be "Jesus with skin on." Freddy knew, as I’m sure that I did, I was attempting to impress him. It didn’t take me throwing a cast net. He already loved me without telling me. Looking back, we both were so young we didn’t really know what love was. Second semester rolled around and I was to move to the Phi Mu floor in another dorm. It was the end of December as I headed up the State. Listening to the radio I found out that there had been a bad ice storm and Cleveland had been hit hard. Stopping in Yazoo City in order to catch a ride with my new roommate, Medina, we hesitated to leave, not knowing if the dorms would be open. We decided to head on to Cleveland. Freddy was supposed to help me move and, of course, he showed up as planned. Medina and I were the only ones on campus, but we had nowhere else to stay. Freddy made sure that we had food to eat and plenty of time to hang out with him. The entire second semester, we were together constantly. Although both of us still went out with other people, it was the two of us that always ended up together. I had to study a lot and he hated to study. He would wait on me to finish about ten o’clock, which was curfew and they would lock the dorm. Since I couldn’t walk out of the door, he would come to the window where we lived on the first floor at the end of the hall and tap on the window. I would crawl out of the window with him helping down and we would go ride and talk and laugh and sing and kiss. After a bit, he would take me back to the dorm and push me into the window as I said goodnight. Thirty years later, we were texting and I got a text that said, “The window.” As I was texting “?” a picture text came of the window he had pulled me in and out of so many times. I cried because he took the time to take a picture of the window. He remembered. His memory was keen; his thoughtfulness unsurpassed; his smile was always at me; his love never-changing, even after thirty years…
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:08:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015