From Montgomery to Birmingham my “mustering out pay” went for a suit of “civies”, then on to my beloved little town of Fulton, family and friends. It was too late to enroll in school, therefore the rest of 1945 was spent in my favorite sports of hunting, fishing and wooing. Many of my old buddies were returning home from various branches of service. Therefore, there was a constant stream of activity around the Gibbs household.
After Christmas 1945, I enrolled in the spring semester of school at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). The school was grossly overcrowded with so many taking advantage of the GI Bill of Rights (government paying for school, books, tuition, and allowances for honorably discharged Vets).
A lifelong friend, A.C. “Butch” Lambert, and I were roommates for this semester. When we returned to our room there was another bed that had been moved into our room.
“Good”, I said, “We will have a freshman to handle our laundry, keep the room swept and do the odd jobs around here.”
What a joke, our new roomy was William Hampton “Bill” Stewart, a start football player from 1941. The three of us, crowded as we were, made fine roommates.
Since Ole Miss was only 70 miles east of Fulton, Butch and I would go home quite often. My sister, Bonnie Ruth, in school at Columbus, a distance of 70 miles south of Fulton would often come home bringing several of her girlfriends. When I would be at home, she would ask me to date one of her friends. My response was always that they were too young, 17-18 year old, for me. The “kids” would slow me down, a man of 25 years.
Easter weekend of 1946, I went home. Bonnie Ruth was there with three of her friends. As usual I started to bound up the steps to my room when sister called me to come into the living room to meet her friends. After the introduction I called Bonnie Ruth to come upstairs, and my comments were along these lines,
“The Kid in the pink and black taffeta is kinda young but I can take her out tonight.”
“No you can’t, she has a date with Bill Robinson.”
After further discussion, Bonnie Ruth changed the dating around so the Kid in the pink and black taffeta and I were together. That night, another couple, the Kid, and I went to a carnival in Nettleton, Mississippi. During the evening I won a wedding ring at one of the carnival booths. This was given to the Kid. The next Easter Sunday, April 6, 1947, at the Fayette Baptist Church, Fayette, Mississippi, I was fortunate enough to place a wedding ring on the third finger, left hand of the Kid.