Music soothes savage beasts ... and occasionally it leads to sullen teenagers doing life-altering favors for their little sisters.
Doris Nelson played the saxophone in the band at her junior high in Richmond, Calif., in 1955, and she sat directly in front of a trumpet player, Laura Sloan. A friendship developed through the playing of all that band music and Laura invited Doris to her house.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “I got big eyes and said to myself, ‘Wow.’”
He says: “Interested.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “I started crying about the time my dad took my arm and started down the aisle and didn’t quit until after the ceremony. Tears just rolled down my beautifully made-up face.”
He says: “Her little brother wrote ‘Just Married’ on my powder blue ’53 Ford convertible in red lipstick and I never could get it off. The lipstick came off but the trace was still there.”
My advice for a long happy marriage is:
She says: “Marry your best friend.”
He says: “Don’t expect perfection.”
"About 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon when it was time to go home she asked her brother to give me a ride," says Doris, who was 14 then.
She heard Laura's brother, Lloyd -- 17 at the time -- give an exaggerated moan, the kind of complaining noise that can be anticipated coming from a teenage boy who is asked to do something dreadful by his little sister.
"Then he walked into the kitchen and he said, 'Oh, is this your friend? Sure, I'll take her home,'" Doris recalls.
Lloyd doesn't remember why, in particular, he didn't want to take Doris home.
"I was just lazy, I guess," he says. "When I saw her, then I changed my mind."
Lloyd not only decided it would be nice to give Doris a ride home, he decided to take her to get something to eat on the way so he could spend a little extra time in her company. He pulled into a drive-in restaurant and stopped the car.
Doris was over the moon.
"He was a hunka-hunka. He was gorgeous. He was 6-foot-4 and he had hair in a [duck tail] and a little curl in front. He had on loafers and white socks -- he was beautiful. Here I am this little bitty girl ... I had big stars in my eyes, of course," she says. "I was just gobsmacked, I guess."
Lloyd didn't think to ask what she would like. He just ordered his favorite combo for both of them.
"He bought me cheeseburgers and black coffee. I despised cheeseburgers. I hated coffee -- that was the worst thing ever," she says. "But I ate the cheeseburgers and I drank the coffee and I smiled like that was delicious."
Lloyd was none the wiser.
Looking back, they realize that was their first date.
"I wouldn't really have thought of it as a date but I guess it was," he says.
That was the beginning.
"After he got out of school in the afternoons he would just drive over to my house and knock on the door and say, 'Is Doris home?' and my mother would just glare at him," Doris says. "He was taking away her little girl."
They started seeing movies and going out to eat together, and after about three years of that they decided it was time to get married.
"We decided why look any further? We had the ideal mates," Doris says.
"I felt the same way," Lloyd agrees. "I think it's worked out OK."
They exchanged their vows in a small ceremony on May 10, 1958, in St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richmond, followed by a reception at Doris' parents' home.
"It was just a little wedding," Doris says. "But it was fun because we had our friends and family there."
Their honeymoon was short.
"We were really young and we didn't have any money and I didn't have any time off coming from work, so we went to Santa Rosa, Calif., for the weekend," Lloyd says.
They settled into their new apartment in the small town of Rodeo, Calif., where Lloyd had a civilian job with the U.S. Navy.
In 1969 they moved to Hot Springs because Lloyd accepted a job with Reynolds Metals Co., and they lived there until 1998, when Lloyd retired and they moved to Bryant to be closer to their son, who had moved there after his house in Little Rock had been destroyed by a tornado.
Doris and Lloyd have four children -- Jim Sloan of Coal Hill, Sharon Sloan of Bryant, Mary Payne of Johnstown, Pa., and Lloyd Sloan of Spokane, Wash. They also have eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Doris didn't tell Lloyd about her extreme distaste of their first meal together until 10 or 15 years after they met. She did come to like cheeseburgers over time, though not as much as Lloyd.
"I'll eat a hamburger but I much prefer ice cream or cookies," she says.
"She's got a big sweet tooth," says Lloyd, who obviously knows far more about his wife's tastes after nearly 60 years of marriage than he did on their first date.
They have traveled together some over the years, but it's not Lloyd's favorite thing to do.
"She likes it more than I do. I had to travel some at work and I got all I wanted. I'm kind of a stay-at-home guy," Lloyd says. "She takes a trip every year with our daughters somewhere and I stay home to take care of the cat and dog."
Mostly, Doris says, they like to sit and talk.
"We just like to goof off like we always have," she says.
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High Profile on 05/06/2018