Written by Eve:

How'd a soda jerk from the Pond Creek Bottoms get to be "Enthusiastic Eve"?

My life was a lot different than pretty much everyone else's. I can safely say that because I was child number 22 out of a total of 23. Thank God for baby June (#23), my best friend growing up. Talk about community living. I knew it better than most. When I was five the whole family moved to the "big" city, 3000 citizens. Wow! I was a country girl, very shy and quite overwhelmed. It was a struggle but when I was sixteen, my life opened up because I got a big time job as soda jerk at the Walgreen's Drug Store. My big brother Elvis worked there, and he and C.E. Russell taught me to make cherry Cokes and clean the back mirror when there were no customers. I felt important for the first time.

My family was Hard Shell Baptist so when I joined the Presbyterian Church it was a very significant event. Religion has a tendency to instill guilt for just about everything a person does, so when I stole an ear of corn I was pretty much hooked for life. Guilty, absolutely. I still struggle with that one. Not the corn, just the guilt.

When I was twenty-one I moved to St. Louis and loved the excitement of it all. I lived with a big sister and got a job at the Wabash Railroad. The night life, which I enjoyed regularly, made me feel grown-up and worldly. That's when I met a handsome Irish/Catholic Marine who swept me off my feet. We ran off and got married in New Orleans, then moved to Norfolk, Virginia. I soon became pregnant and moved back to St. Louis. I had my beautiful baby girl with this handsome man. He had a bit of Cherokee blood in him and blessed that little girl with dark skin and big brown eyes. My mom always called her "my only brown-eyed girl." Kathy O'Hara was her name and she was the pride of our lives. (I say was because now she's Kara Oh.) But that handsome husband was irresponsible and left us in St. Louis to fend for ourselves.

I got a job at the Forest Park Hotel in the accounting department for a short time, then worked at an envelope manufacturing business. Neither were particularly inspiring, but they put food on the table. The next man in my life was another of those gal-darn handsome Marines who again swept me off my feet. I'd have cursed him except for what I got out of the bargain. Yep, I got pregnant. Pretty fertile I am. At first I was pretty devastated because he wouldn't marry me as he'd promised. But once I looked into that baby boy's face, well, my heart got all wrapped up in his and it was true love. God gives good presents.

Now I was in a pickle. Single, no grand work skills and two babies to support. But my big brother Elvis took me with him to California and let us live with him and his wife and son. My other brother, Eldon, got me a job at Rockwell International. I was working as a secretary, and pretty good at it, I might add, when I met the next guy who, you guessed it, swept me off my feet. Maybe I should have been wearing lead weighted shoes. I'd signed up for the company bowling league and met Charlie there. We dated for a long time and out of the blue, we went to Las Vegas and came back married. His work moved us to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had a grand house and a nice life, but he did the big naughty with his secretary and that was the end of that. I got a divorce and moved to California where my little girl was now grown up, married with two kids of her own. I wanted to be a real grandma to those two kids and it was a great excuse to get out of Tulsa and the heartache of another divorce. Also, my son had finished his college work and left the nest.

I've been self-supporting ever since. I bought myself a condominium and real proud of myself. I've gone back to college and learned a few things along the way. I've recently retired from my job with Human Resources and lookin' to start a new chapter in this book I call my life. I live near both my kids and enjoy a rich life filled with family, friends and favorite activities. Wonder what's around the corner? I'm curious, ready and excited about what's next. Bring it on and hallelujah!