Jim Crane and his daughter Missy Worden

Jim Crane and his daughter Missy Worden

Interview transcript

JC: I was finally away from my mother; I found out what girls were. Never dated at all in High School. I found out they were soft and they smelled good, and I liked them.

MW: (Laughs)

JC: And my senior year, I met your mother. I was working in the business office. She was a switchboard operator. I’d come up the hall a-whistling and she’d always fuss at me because she was trying to hear. I got to talking to her and I got to liking her. I finally said, “You wanna go to a movie with me?” And she said no.

MW: (Laughs) Really?

JC: And I said “Why?” And she said, “I’ve double dated with you. I see what you do to those girls in the back seat.”

MW: (Laughs)

JC: I thought, “Well, I’ve never had a girl tell me no.” So the girl I was dating in Charlotte, North Carolina, I had given her my pin. So I wrote and told her to send it back to me. And the girl I was dating in town I’d give her some little something or other and I told her to give that back to me, and another girl I was dating on campus, I’d done something for her, and I told her to give that back to me.

MW: (Laughs)

JC: So I got those three things and I took them over to the switchboard and I lay them down. I said, “Now, look at here. I done broke up with all three of those girls.” I said, “Will you go to a movie with me?” She said, “Ok.”

MW: (Laughs)

JC: And so we started dating. And we graduated in 1959. I went immediately into the Navy. And I was gonna give her a diamond engagement ring when I got paid at the end of boot camp. But the Navy screwed up the pay somehow, and everybody got paid but me. Well I’d told everybody what I was going to do with my money. And I was very despondent. I was sitting on my bed and this guy I didn’t like came up to me and he said, “Crane, give me a match.” I said, “I don’t smoke and I don’t have matches.” He said, “Yeah you do. I’ve seen them in your locker.” And I gave a great oath and stood up and went to my locker and opened it. And my locker was full of money. And the money started falling out. So I sat down and cried. (laughs) And I guess they passed the hat. And I used that money to buy your mother’s first diamond ring. And I said, “Now, you’re gonna marry me but you gotta know that you’re engaged to Company 290. So she said, “That’s fair.”

MW: (Laughs) She’s a very loving lady.

JC: She really is. She’s a good gal.