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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 77/125

When I left school, Eric had already graduated from Lake City High School. At that
time we had been dating for a couple of years. He was working at his first job with the
Columbia County Agriculture Agent, C. A. Fulford. Mr. Fulford, his boss, let Eric use his

rumble-seat Ford.
Mr. Fulford and I were close friends, and he was anxious for Eric to marry me. He
would let Eric get off early enough in the afternoons to take his car with the “mother-in-law”
seat—at least that’s what I called it—to Mason to pick me up at school. We’d bring along

my best friend, Mabie, and get a soda pop. Mabie lived only about a mile and a half from our
farm. Afterwards, Eric took us home.
One Friday morning, when I knew Eric would be picking me up, I asked Pa if Mabie

and her boyfriend, and Eric and I could go to Poe Springs to go swimming after school. Poe
Springs is near High Springs. He very reluctantly let me go. I didn’t tell him about a dance at
Poe Springs that night because Pa didn’t allow me to go to dances. I was 18 years old then.
I had never even seen anyone dance. Some of my relatives said Ma and Pa went to

every dance they could get to, and that Pa could dance and put his foot in his pocket, take it
out, and never miss a beat to the music.
I didn’t realize that the dance at Poe Springs didn’t start until 9 p.m. We stayed until

that time, knowing that I was going to catch the devil when I got home. We stayed for just
one round of dancing. Mabie’s boyfriend, Otis Page, lived out of our way, and we had to
take him home. I was really getting uptight because my parents would know we were not
swimming until 10 p.m.

Pa raised holy conversation with me, with a few threats and some accusations. I didn’t
consider any of his blah-blah very holy or religious. Mabie’s parents didn’t even question her

whereabouts or the late hour she got home. I never did anything to cause my parents to
chew me out and he so strict on me—but they did and they were.
In the late spring of 1926,1 went with Uncle Joe, Aunt Annie, and Gussie to Dowling
Park to visit Reid and1 Dolly. A singing convention was being held at a church west of Live

Oak. Just as we reached the road that turned off Highway 90 to go to the church, a car
turned into the road. It was Eric’s car. I knew a girl, who lived in that vicinity, had been
trying to get a date with Eric, and I knew Eric was there to see this girl—thinking that I

would never know.
He surely was surprised when I confronted him! I told him he had broken all promises
of the going-steady business; going steady had been his idea—not mine. He almost got on his

knees wanting me to forgive him. He swore he’d never do it again. It really didn’t bother me

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