Lela’s Story Part 3

A while back, I received an email containing the story of someone’s realization that the most important information contained on a person’s tombstone is represented in the dash between the dates of the birth and death. The sum total of the life experience is contained in the dash and in Lela’s life, the details between Lela and widower are found in the “dash”.

After the incident, We know that Lela’s days of cleaning houses for the welfare woman were over. She was hired at the local department store downtown Springfield. Her long  days full of manual labor were over. For Lela, her life, the one that belonged to her was just beginning.

We know that one of the first things that Lela did when she worked at the department store was purchase curtains for Polly’s shack. She hated that everyone could look in on her life and there was nothing to keep prying eyes out. Of course, it was of no interest to Polly whether there were curtains. To Lela, they represented accomplishment, her own accomplishment.

Along with curtains, Lela’s next accomplishment was to marry. We must delegate these details to the “dash” as well. His name was Durment. She married him around her 16th birthday with a baby girl to follow at 17.

Lela’s life was found on the wrong side of the tracks. Durment was a drinker. He wasn’t a happy one. We know that, when he drank, he became violent. Once again, Lela had to defend and protect herself and her daughter.

We understand that Lela tired of Durment’s drinking, throwing his dinner in the floor and then escalating to violence by using her as a punching bag. One night, Lela knew what was coming and she decided to give Durment a taste of his own medicine. She beat him within an inch of his life. Lela wasn’t proud of this, but this was a product of her life.

With her marriage ending in divorce, Lela found herself again providing a life. This time is was for herself and her daughter in a less than forgiving society. At the turn of the century, poor, half breed divorcee’s were not welcomed in polite society. Lela found herself further down on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks. It was those very tracks that held her future.

Lela went to work at the “whistle stop” restaurant. Every town had a whistle stop restaurant. The railroads were the lifeblood of the Midwest and at each intersecting train depot, there was a hotel, a livery, a general store and a restaurant.

It was at the Whistle Stop that Lela eked out a meager living for herself and her child. It was at the Whistle Stop that Lela caught the eye of the available young men. There were two men in particular that hoped that Lela would smile in their direction.

One was a traveling salesman that found himself in the restaurant for “pie and coffee” as he made his appointed rounds. Each time that he would ask Lela for a date, she declined explaning that she had to get home because her mother was caring for her daughter.

Then there was the “railroader”. Railroaders were the land based version of sailors with reputations that they had a woman at every depot. Lela was warned away from becoming involved with any man that worked on the railroad and she heeded that advise.

So, every time this handsome, first generation British, young man asked, Lela politely refused his invitations until New Year’s Eve.

Lela had to work that day and the salesman came in for his usual pie and coffee. He invited Lela to come with him for an evening of celebration. This time, Lela said for him to meet her at the restaurantat 8:30 PM.  That is when she got off of work.

Later in the afternoon, everyone noticed that the whistle on the train engine was blaring its shrill pitch. Non stop for over an hour, the train whistle was blowing and everyone in the town was wondering what was the problem.

The police arrived to investigate the cause of the disturbance. There, they found a slightly inebriated young railroader who had tied the chain of the train whistle to the outside railing. When they inquired as to why he had tied the whistle off, he replied that he would not untie the whistle unltil Lela agreed to accompany him to the New Year’s Eve celebration this evening.

The policeman entered the restaurant, explained to Lela that eveyone’s sanity depended on her agreeing to go with this young man, and Lela told the policeman to give the young railroader a message. The message said for the him to meet her at the restaurant at 8:30PM. The police officer quickly relayed the message and, much to everyone’s ears relief, peace was restored.

Lela realized that she had told two men to meet her at the same place at the same time. She knew that at 8:30PM two men would be expecting her to go with them….but which one would she choose?????

These details are not in the dash….