Judy's Parents

Judy's parents, Pet and Eldred Stutts, both had September birthdays, so I've been thinking about them a lot this month.  They were the two hardest-working people I ever knew.  

For many years they owned a little grocery store in Thornton, Texas, and every day they were up at dawn, if not before.  Pet would cook a full breakfast, and Eldred would be at the store not long after the sun was up.  After cleaning up the kitchen, Pet would join him there and work until noon, when she'd cook a full meal on the stove in the back of the store.  In the afternoon, she'd go to the house and clean it thoroughly.  And I mean thoroughly.  She cleaned the bathroom every day, not just once or twice a week.  She's the only person I ever knew who mopped the garage.  She'd go back to the store after cleaning, but she'd leave early because in the evening she'd cook the third full meal of the day.  Eldred often stayed at the store until dark, except in the summer when dark didn't come until 9:00.  In the winter when dark came early, he'd stay until after dark. It's true that Eldred worked hard at the store, but I always thought Pet worked even harder.

The doors of the Central Baptist church never opened without Pet and Eldred being there.  Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  Always. When Judy and I started dating, we were allowed to go out on Sunday night, but only if we attended church first.  Later on we started dating on Wednesday nights in the summer, and somehow we got a dispensation from church attendance.  Judy must have done some fast talking to make that work.

Judy and I got married as soon as she graduated from college, and not too long afterward I was talking to her parents about saving money.  They loved Judy beyond words, and they spent most of their money on her.  Her college education was all paid for, and although she had a summer job, it didn't pay much.  So I told her parents that they'd just been relieved of a big expense and that they should start putting money in a savings account.  For some reason they listened to this whippersnapper and did it.  It worked out well for them when they retired, and I've always been glad I brought it up.

They didn't like to talk about some things, though.  When Judy got pregnant with Angela, saying the word pregnant was almost more than Eldred could bring himself to do.  When she got pregnant with Allen only a short time after Angela was born, he couldn't do it.  He said, "You mean you're p-p-p-going to have another baby?"

Great people, both of them.  I'll have some more to say later.