Harriet: Best Friends, The Boyfriend and Artistic Talent

I wonder what it was like to be Harriet's best friend.  I call her Harriet because, as I learned more and more about my mother and her life, I got to know a young woman by the name of Harriet.  With all the hours I researched and dreamed, I feel like I only got to know her a little bit.  I am envious of her best friend, Mary Jo.  I wonder what they whispered about, covered their mouths with their hands and giggled about, the heart breaks they shared and cried about.  Did Harriet cry when Ernest broke up with her that first time when he found out how young she was?  Did she run to Mary Jo's house and fling herself on the bed and cry and cry and cry till the tears were all gone.  Did Mary Jo make her laugh and give her hope that one day, if he was the right one, he would come back?  I bet she did, because that is what best friends do. 

Harriet at age 16 and Mary Jo. Bottom left, Harriet and Clara.

Harriet must have been 16 when she met Ernest Ely.  They were double-dating.  Harriet was with another guy, and Ernest was dating one of her best friends.  I can't remember which one, but I don't think it was Mary Jo or Clara.  Ernest became quite smitten with Harriet that night.  She was a beauty, as you can see from the picture above.  Ernest told Harriet after the double-date that he wanted to start seeing her.  I believe she told him he would have to talk to her friend about it first.  Can you imagine having your girlfriend think you stole her boyfriend?  Apparently, things were not serious between the two of them, from either set of eyes, so it worked out.  He broke things off with the other girl and dated only Mom.  Harriet and her friend remained friends with awkward moments.  Ernest and Harriet happily dated, that is, until he found out she was only 16.  Then he dumped her and ran!  From what I understand, it was quite abrupt. Maybe it wasn't quite that traumatic, but he did quit seeing her.

A random memory: Notice the lipstick.  I am sure it was red.  As a little kid I remember mom getting up at 5:30 am to fix Dad's breakfast and see him off to work.  She would get out of bed, brush her hair and put on her red lipstick.  Every morning.  And when he came home of an evening, guess what?  Yep!  The lipstick... and neatly dressed with her hair in place and make-up on.  No wonder my girls and I are so vain!  We come by it honestly.  You will never catch us in Walmart without our make-up, neatly dressed, hair in place and without lipstick or lip gloss.  Well... maybe if there is a sick baby. 

A few months later Ernest and Harriet ran into one another on a bus, at a bus stop... something like that, in downtown Columbus.  They began to talk.  I'm sure Harriet looked irresistible and Ernest very handsome.  He was six years older than her, after all.  An older man.  And he worked out.  Dad was Buff, as they say.

He used to be able to cross Eckel's Lake on these rings... which was a right of passage in the day.

This is a picture I found on a fan page for Eckel's Lake.  It is probably from the 70's.

The rest is history.  They started dating again.  Harriet was a senior in High School.  One of her teacher's liked to give her a hard time about her work.  Anybody who ever knew Harriet would tell you she knew how to stand her ground and she was certainly a force to be reckoned with when she got in a mood.  One day she just had all she could take, or all she decided she wanted to take, and she told her teacher in no uncertain terms that she wanted to get married anyway.  She walked out and went home.  She quit South High School in January or February of her Senior year and ran off to Greenup, Kentucky with Ernest and got married.  February 7, 1942.  And she lied about her age.  The marriage announcement in the paper said that she and Ernest were both 21.

Fun Fact:  I was talking to my Aunt Mary ( Dad's younger sister, Mary Louise Ely) a few months ago and she told me a story I had never heard before.  Apparently, Dad was going to marry another young woman at one point.  She was underage also.  They were going to run off to get married and her parents put a stop to it, or they did run off and her dad caught up with them and stopped it from happening.  Apparently, Dad was pretty tore up about it for quite awhile.  That may be why he was so gun shy when it came to Mom's age.  Just a thought.  I did find a picture of Dad with his arm around a blond headed girl in one of Grandpa Ely's wallets.  I wonder if that is her.  Aunt Mary said this happened quite awhile before he met Mom.

Opps!  I've jumped ahead of myself.  There are sisters and brothers and other family members that wind through this tale of Harriet's life.  And did I mention that she was quite the artist?  Here are some samples of the art work of a young high school girl in Columbus, Ohio, in the depression era.  The sisters will have to wait until my next post.  Then it is Dad's turn.

The picture on the bottom right is a self-portrait of Mom that Harriet and Ernest drew together.  I wonder where they were at the time.  A park bench?  Inside her home at the kitchen table?  Her home was more commonly known as Grand Central Station.  Lying beside each other under a tree by a lake?  I don't know.  I didn't ask.  Funny how that works.  Ask.

A random memory:  During my first visit to New York City about ten years ago, my best friend, Karen, and I found ourselves in Grand Central Station.  I remembered then how Mom referred to her home growing up as such.  With eight kids and their friends... I'm sure it was just that!

Next time:  More about the Salyards family.  The "sisters"  and brothers and Aunts, Uncle's and Cousins.