Here’s the concluding excerpt from William ‘Billy Lee’ Turner’s book about living in the Arcadia Hotel — run by his grandma ‘with the precision of a drill sergeant’ — in Arcadia in the late 1930s and 1940s.— J.T.K.

Eric Davis was one of our boarders. He was a tall, handsome, young Frisco Station Agent. Eric was a star pitcher for the Arcadia baseball team. Naturally, he attracted the interest of some the town’s young, unmarried girls.

Eric started dating a brunette named Maxine. Arcadia could be daunting when a suiter didn’t have a car. The couple could go to the girl’s home or the hotel’s living room. However, they wouldn’t be comfortable sitting in the hotel’s living room because the boarders would exchange whispers and elbow nudges as they watched the couple. Hence, the girl’s home parlor was the better choice.

The girl’s parlor was not a perfect solution because there was always the possibility that the girl’s parents would decide to stay up to listen to a late radio show., or if they went to bed, the mother would have her ears tuned for any lull in the couple’s conversation.

A  movie, therefore, was high on the “dating list places,” and walks around town were a favorite, but there was only one movie playing on Saturday night, and there weren’t many streets in Arcadia. Sitting on a bench in a park on a moonlit night would have ‘fit the bill,” except Arcadia didn’t have a park.

The drugstore was a place where a couple could spend an hour or two. One night, Eric and Maxine walked to the hotel to ask me if I would like to go with them to the the drugstore for a treat. Looking back on the invitation, Eric was probably trying to impress his date with how much he liked children. If a suiter didn’t want children, an Arcadia girl would drop hi “like a hot potato.”

I was only five years old and had never been to the drugstore, so I didn’t care about Eric’s motive; I only wanted that drugstore treat. Grandma said I could go with the couple, so I splashed water over my face, put on freshly pressed pants and a shirt, and combed my hair.

When we were seated, Eric asked me if I would like a malt or milkshake. I knew nothing about either of them, so I told him I would like a milkshake. When it arrived, I beheld a tall glass filled to the brim with a cold, thick chocolate drink with a straw in the middle. I started slurping; it was the most delicious drink I had ever tasted.

After his second year at the Depot, Eric left for another assignment and never married Maxine. Two years after Eric left, Maxine married a farmer out near Croweburg. 

I never saw Eric again, but I will never forget him and my first milkshake.

• William ‘Billie Lee’ Turner

Note: Most all of us have a loving memory like this — when an older boy or girl paid special attention to us — that we hold deep in our hearts. — J.T.K.

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