Carrie and Alvin Yelton meet
Carrie and Alvin Yelton met when her mother's water pipe burst and he rushed to help turn it off. They talk briefly about their courtship, and Carrie explains that while she waited until she was thirty-one to marry, she did not feel that it should be viewed as unusual.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Mareda Sigmon Cobb and Carrie Sigmon Yelton, June 16 and 18, 1979. Interview H-0115. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
When did you get married?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
I got married in 1950.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Where did you meet your husband?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
[Laughter]
When my water broke.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
[Laughter]
Well, that's great.
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
My mother and I were living in an apartment, and him and his sister and
brother rented the other part. And it was in the wintertime, and my
water froze up and busted, and they came over, him and his brother, and
that's where we met.
[Laughter]
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
That's very romantic. It's like dropping your handkerchief for somebody
to come along and pick up.
[Laughter]
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
What was he doing then?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
He was working on the railroad.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How long did you go out together before you got married?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
About a year.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
You were still living in the same apartment, sort of next door to
him?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes. I worked at textiles then.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How did you decide to get married?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
He just asked me to get married.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Do you remember when he proposed?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes.
- ALVIN YELTON:
-
You didn't tell them how come we got together, though, did you?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes, I told them my water broke.
[Laughter]
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
After you all got married, where did you live?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
We lived there for a while, and then we moved up on Main Avenue
Drive.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
So you'd been living with your mother all along?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
And your other brothers and sisters had left home.
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes. She stayed with us.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
Had you had other boyfriends? Had you ever thought about getting married
before that?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
Yes, I did, but I never did get married. He was the guy. He was the one.
[Laughter]
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
He was the right one. Now you should leave here, so we can talk about you
when you're gone.
[Laughter]
- PATTY DILLEY:
-
You didn't get married, then, till you were about thirty-one. Was that
old then to be getting married, or did a lot of people wait?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
It didn't seem too old to me.
[Laughter]
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
People didn't tease you or say, "Why don't you get
married?"?
- CARRIE SIGMON YELTON:
-
No, I just had a good time.
