Who Was That Unmasked Man?

Valentines Day is in the air.

I remember going to the Marietta High School Valentine Ball with a girl named Judy H. my senior year.

I don’t know if it is still a tradition but then each class would have a Valentine male and female to represent their class in the Valentine’s Queen and King Court. How do you get to be King and Queen? – the same way presidents are chosen, whoever raises the most money wins.

There is a last surge to raise money at the Ball. The reason I mention this is that one of the female contestants asked me to write a skit for her. Which I did – it was a take off on the Roman Senate and the famous speech before Caesar was stabbed to death on the steps of the senate by senators, of course.

Afterwards, Judy and I were driving down Polk Street or Stewart Avenue near Burnt Hickory Road, it was slightly snowing and just beginning to stick.

Teenagers do not have enough years behind them to be experienced drivers. They generally, do not the powerful physics of a car, but thing they do.

That was me.

We slid off the road into a ditch and the wheels spun when I tried to back out. We were way out, what seemed like miles from nowhere.

Then, up drove a wrecker which a big hoist on the back. A black man, probably in his 50s got out of the passenger side. On the driver’s side a slim man with work coveralls got out and looked over the situation. He and the black man hooked up a cable to the back of my car and together the guided the cable pulling my car out of the ditch.

I couldn’t thank them enough and offered to pay them for their service. The man waved such a thought away. He was doing it as a favor for to whoever needed it – which at the moment was us.

Who was that man and his faithful assistant?

James T. Anderson. On the side of the truck were the words ANDERSON MOTOR COMPANY.