Since I was just a young girl I admired and envied my older sister, Lorene.  No one can recall how it started but I was the only one to call her Toad.  She was everything I wanted to be.  She was so smart.  She could type faster than Grandma Lucy could talk and she was a whiz at taking shorthand.  I remember her listening to a song on the radio and taking it down in shorthand, so my sister, Betty and I could learn the words and sing the song in a school talent contest.  She was a senior that year and headed up the contest.  We made an agreement that if we won, we’d share the money with her.  We didn’t win, but we sure had fun practicing.

Lorene told us how when she was a kid she’d slip off down the road to catch the school bus so dad wouldn’t see her.  Sometimes he would leave orders for all the kids to stay home from school and work in the fields, but Lorene loved school and would do anything to go.  I’m surprised he didn’t go to the school and drag her home.  I think he didn’t because he admired her as much as I did for defying him and doing what she thought was best for her. When she was in high school, she was the captain of her volleyball team and was the best spiker on the team. She would jump high up in the air and using her fist, she’d sock that ball straight down over the net so hard, no one could get under it fast enough to send it back.  Sam Bodine was not only one of the teachers at Marston but our coach as well and he seemed to think what one Atnip could do the others could do too.  But when I came along it didn’t take him long to realize I was never going to be as good a spiker as Lorene.  I loved playing volleyball and wanted to be as good as Lorene was,  but I could never draw that look of fear on my opponent’s faces when I stepped up to the net like Lorene did.  When we had sock hops, proms and etc.at the school gym, Sam would ask me to dance and I always felt flattered that a teacher would ask me to dance.  But when he started jitterbugging, I had to remind him, “I dance rock & roll. You’ve got me mixed up with Lorene.”

Toad was the first of us ten kids to graduate from high school and she set the standard for the rest of us.  Because of her, the rest of us were determined we could finish high school too and we all did.  Though dad didn’t encourage us, he didn’t stop us either.  I think secretly he was proud of Lorene.  I know Mama was.

In my early teens, Lorene graduated from high school and left home to go to Poplar Bluff where she lived with our Uncle Alec and worked as a secretary.  Later she moved to Rockford, ILL with a friend and worked in a secretarial pool.  I’m not sure how long she worked there, but it wasn’t long before she joined the Air Force or what was known then as the Women’s Air Force, (WAF).  Back then a young lady who joined the military services did not have a good reputation. By some Lorene was considered the “black sheep” of the family because she had gone against dad’s wishes and went off on her own and joined the Air Force.  But I thought she was the bravest person I knew. She wrote letters, sent cards and photos and told us so many stories of what it was like to belong and work with a bunch of girls from all over the country. I wished that I could be there with her.

One of the stories she told was when she was stationed in Hawaii working in security.  She said they told her they needed a good cryptography clerk and since she was so good at typing she should have no trouble learning how to use the machine. Lorene told how she tried and tried to learn to operate the cryptographic machine, but just didn’t understand how it worked. She couldn’t understand how the words came into the machine in code and she would type them out in English. (Or did I get that backwards?) When one of the higher ups walked by and saw she was having trouble, he ordered the Airman teaching her to take the machine apart and put it back together with Lorene watching.  That seemed to do the trick because she didn’t have any more trouble operating the machine. Beaming with pride, she told how she was the first to know when Eisenhower Landed on the island, and one of the first to run down to the beach to shake his hand.

I can’t remember where she said she was stationed when she met her first husband, Lee.  She told me that one night she and some of her friends had tied sheets together and slipped out of the barracks, knowing if they got caught they would be in trouble.  They made it down alright and went into town and had some fun, but when they tried to climb back into the window an AP or Air Policeman caught them and one of them told Lorene he wouldn’t report them if she’d go out on a date with him. Lorene agreed and the AP kept his word.  She went out on a date with him and a few months later, she and Lee were married.  I can remember her saying more than once over the next years, “If I hadn’t gotten pregnant I’d still be in the Air Force.”  She loved the Women’s Air Force, but back then, if a female got pregnant she was automatically given an honorable discharge.

After I graduated from high school, I left home and I went to live with Lorene and her family in Louisiana.  She helped me find a job and an apartment of my own. I learned many things from Lorene. One of her best advises went like this: “Don’t stay out after midnight on a date.  If you do, the guy will expect something you might not want to give.”  I can still hear her saying, “Every time you get paid, put some money aside in a savings account, even if it’s only a dollar a week. Pay it like a bill.  And no matter what, don’t take any of it out, unless it’s an emergency.  You’ll be surprised how fast it will mount up.”  I passed her lessons on to my own children and grandchildren. Another lesson I learned from her was, “Never date a guy you wouldn’t be proud to introduce to your family.” And last but not least, she’d say, ”Don’t slump!  Stand up straight!  Be proud you’re tall.  It’s a lot better than being short and dumpy!”