Share a Mlkshake

By Cecil Thomas

The story begins in a farm area in rural Kentucky in the early fifties. It follows the journey of three sixteen-year-old close friends whose lives were upended by tragedy.

Tommy met Luke and Rachel at a drive-in theater, where Tommy was the projectionist. The three teens quickly became close friends often going out for milkshakes together. Tommy and Rachel were attracted to one another but never acted upon their feelings because Rachel was Luke's girlfriend. The three of them gathered almost weekly on a nearby farm owned by Sarah and her husband. Sarah enjoyed seeing the kids and soon became a mother figure to them.

Toward the end of their senior year of high school, Luke and Rachel went to a nearby city where Rachel underwent a botched abortion. Driving back, Rachel nearly died from bleeding, but that was not the worst part. They knew that their church would stone them to death. Tommy and Sarah persuaded Rachel and Luke to run away. They helped Rachel and Luke establish new identities, severed all ties with family and friends, and drove away to some unknown place. Sarah and Tommy grieved their departure but knew that it would save their lives.

Sarah and Tommy maintained contact, and when Tommy became a single father of two in St. Louis, Sarah moved to St. Louis to help Tommy with his kids. Tommy was a successful professor, and Sarah managed their finances.

Rachel (now Abby) and Luke (now Carl) escaped to Iowa, where Abby worked in a small medical clinic with one doctor. She and Carl lived on a farm which Carl managed. Carl died in an accident, leaving Abby with their two children.

After fourteen years of separation and a bit of serendipity, Abby, a doctor, and Tommy meet at Stanford University. It was an unexpected and joyous reunion.

Tommy and Abby quickly merged their families and, along with Sarah, settled in a house adjacent to the Stanford campus. They both enjoyed successful careers at Stanford and increased the size of their family to eight kids. Although far from rural Kentucky, where their journeys began, they still enjoyed sharing milkshakes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887319049

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1: On the Nelson Family Farm

Chapter 2: Autumn on Sarah's Farm

Chapter 3: Activities on Sarah's Farm

Chapter 4: Senior-Year Activities

Chapter 5: Near-Death Trauma

Chapter 6: Rachel and Luke Disappear

Chapter 7: Tommy in Academia, Conference in San Diego

Chapter 8: El Zorro and Back to Family in St. Louis

Chapter 9: Abby and Carl in Midwest

Chapter 10: VP Ken Arrives for Visit on Iowa Farm

Chapter 11: Heading West; Stop in Wyoming

Chapter 12: Conference at Stanford; Tommy and Abby Reunite

Chapter 13: Weekend at Abby's Apartment

Chapter 14: Weekend in St. Louis

Chapter 15: Return to Stanford, a House, and Two Kids

Chapter 16: Move from St. Louis to Stanford

Chapter 17: First Month in Nelson Home

Chapter 18: Nelson Family Grows

Chapter 19: Reception at Stanford

Chapter 20: Milkshakes and Proposal

Chapter 21: Stanford Scholar's Program

Chapter 22: Family Stories

About the Author

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Share a Mlkshake

Cecil Thomas

Copyright © 2023 Cecil Thomas

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

ISBN 979-8-88731-903-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88731-904-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To Eileen Duggan, a wonderful reader, editor, critic, and friend.

To Jan Thomas, who tolerates my journeys into fictional worlds.

Chapter 1

On the Nelson Family Farm

Tommy Nelson grew up in the 1940s and 1950s with two parents in a Kentucky farmhouse with no electricity and no plumbing. Their home was wired for electricity when Tommy was eleven years old. Initially, Tommy was disappointed with electricity because it just replaced the kerosene lamps and lanterns with twenty-watt light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. For some reason, Tommy expected more, or maybe something more dramatic. Later, they bought a family-size refrigerator to replace the icebox. Tommy liked that because he no longer needed to empty the drip tray that collected the melting ice in the icebox. The refrigerator was a definite improvement.

His parents bought the farm during the Depression by persuading the local bank president that their eight kids would guarantee the mortgage payments. Tommy was born a few years later when his parents were nearly forty-six years old. Tommy's older siblings viewed him as some kind of brat or nuisance, or a kind of house pet. In spite of those age differences, Tommy learned from them and helped them when he could. He also learned when he was not welcomed.

Their consistent cash crops were tobacco and milk from about forty dairy cows. They grew corn and hay for the cows, and in good years, they had enough hay to sell. Their garden was huge and sufficient for themselves and their nearby married kids and for storing food for the winters.

Tommy's aging parents maintained some old habits. Breakfast started by 5:30 a.m. to allow time for milking the cows and cleaning and washing before school. They started milking the cows before sunrise and completed a second milking before supper at 6:00 p.m. That gave Tommy long evenings to study by the light of kerosene lamps and later by electric lights.

Tommy helped his father install an electric motor and pump to supply water to the milk house where they stored milk in a new large stainless-steel tank at about forty degrees. Milk from the cows was poured into the tank. Every two days, the milk-processing company sent a tank truck to collect the milk.

After installing the water pump for supplying water at the milk house near the barn, Tommy installed a similar system to provide water in their kitchen. Instead of using a manual pump to get a bucket of water from the cistern, they had a faucet in a kitchen sink.

In the absence of an indoor bathroom, they took sponge baths with a wash cloth and a pan of warm water, and they used an outhouse. Tommy found an old discarded container that was designed for watering plants. The water from the container exited through several small holes—much like a modern sprinkler head or showerhead. Tommy discarded the damaged container but kept the sprinkler head to make a shower behind the milk house. In colder weather, Tommy took a sponge bath in the house, but he preferred the outdoor shower.

At age fifteen, Tommy started working as a projectionist at a drive-in theater—his first job off the farm. In the 1950s, social security numbers were not required until adulthood and a salaried job. To work at the drive-in theater and to get paid, Tommy had to get a social security number.

His father paid him for collecting tobacco leaves that fell to the ground during the harvesting process. Normally, the leaves would be left on the ground, but Tommy was obsessive about collecting the leaves in the early morning when the leaves were soft from the morning dew. He started the leaf collecting when he was in the first grade. The leaves were cured in a tobacco barn and sold in November. His father also gave him five dollars per week for milking cows. Most of his income went into a savings account at the bank.

Tommy had been driving since his legs were long enough to reach the clutch and brake pedals. He started driving a tractor when he was eight years old—when he was heavy enough to push the pedals—one at a time. He drove a truck when his legs were long enough and he could see over the steering wheel. He started driving a car at age twelve and bought his own car at age fifteen. So driving to the drive-in theater was not an issue.

When Tommy was sixteen, he drove to the Kentucky motor vehicle office to take a driving test and get an official driver's license. All went well, but as Tommy left with his first official license, he wondered what would have happened if he had failed the test. Would they confiscate his car? Would they take him to jail? Tommy just laughed and recalled the very easy test.

Tommy's life became highly structured and scheduled with farmwork, being a projectionist at the drive-in theater, and school. The exceptions were few but included some rainy days, Sunday afternoons, and occasionally Saturday afternoons when his parents went to town to shop and see friends. A typical weekday was milking after breakfast, going to school or working on the farm, milking in late afternoon, and the drive-in theater after supper. Usually, the drive-in closed at about 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. with occasional work until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.

Tommy always slept less than others, and the work at the drive-in shortened his nights. He adopted some tricks for staying awake while driving home when he was unusually tired and sleep deprived. He sang to himself loudly or talked to himself. In worse cases, he stopped the car and ran around the car a few times before continuing toward home.

The most embarrassing event happened once when Tommy arrived home later than usual and immediately went to the outhouse. He sat with hands on head and elbows on knees, and he immediately fell asleep. Tommy stayed in that comfortable position until his mother called him to breakfast about ninety minutes later. Tommy reacted to the call to breakfast by attempting to stand and dress. He did not realize that the wooden seat had inhibited blood flow in his legs, leaving him with no leg control. He rolled out of the outhouse door headfirst into the grass with pants lowered, no legs strength, and pins and needles everywhere below the waist. The pins and needles usually describes a limb that has gone to sleep. An arm or foot that goes to sleep quietly will awaken with the painful pins and needles. Tommy experienced that transient pain from waist to toes. Then after some painful rolling in the grass and moaning, gradually, the pins and needles became annoying more than painful. At some point, Tommy covered his nudity and walked gingerly toward the house for breakfast.

The drive from theater to home had its perks. Driving on a country road in the wee hours of morning, traffic was totally absent—the road was his. In a full moon or bright moon, Tommy drove home with no lights; the moonlight gave ample illumination in the six-mile trip on a very familiar road. The terrain and trees seemed to be basking in moonlight, and the fog in the valleys appeared white and soft. Tommy admired the beauty of the summer nights in moonlight, and he loved the feeling of being alone in the spacious moonlit terrain.

In winter, the drive-in theater closed, and Tommy played in the school band for all the home basketball games at his high school. The pep band did not travel to their away games.

Previously, Tommy played excellent basketball until he had a freak accident that caused serious damage to one knee. After surgery and nearly two years of recovery, including several weeks on crutches, he returned to normal. During that time, he focused on music and study rather than sports. Tommy did not lose his love of the game; he just directed his energies elsewhere, including farming and working at the drive-in theater.

At the drive-in, the room where Tommy operated the projectors and associated machines was normally called the projection booth. About the size of a modern dining room, the projection booth contained two projectors, a generator to produce electricity for the arc lamps, and a work area. The open space could accommodate two or three visitors. Tommy had many visitors, including friends and curious strangers.

Many visitors wanted to talk, often more than Tommy wanted, but he was polite. Some told him about their cars, girlfriends or boyfriends. Some mentioned single and married women who went to a back alley in Newport to get an abortion. Tommy did not want to know, but some seemed determined to spill those secrets. Birth-control pills were not yet available, and abortion was illegal. Tommy learned that many women in the rural region traveled for abortions in the back alleys in the city of Newport, and many needed follow-up treatment at hospitals to stop bleeding from the abortions by the untrained midwives in Newport. Tommy heard that some women died from bleeding and infections. In families with money, abortions were performed in a resort on a Caribbean Island at a cost of ten times the cost in a dark alley in Newport, but officially, it was just a family holiday.

Those conversations in the projection booth gave Tommy opportunities to make new friends and talk about a lot of topics. Too many visitors told Tommy who just had an abortion and who had to go to hospital. That was more than Tommy wanted to know, but he listened politely or changed the subject. As a naïve kid who learned about reproduction from animals on the farm, Tommy did not understand why medical facilities did not take care of women. The idea of going to a dark alley in a city for medical treatment by untrained persons seemed illogical and cruel.

In summer, when Tommy was sixteen years old, two sixteen-year-old strangers named Rachel and Luke stopped at the projection booth and peeked in the open door. Tommy saw them and invited them to come in. Tommy explained how the projectors work, how the light is produced by the arc lamps, how to use two projectors, and other details. Luke and Rachel seemed very interested, unusually curious and very smart.

Rachel and Luke were from an area about ten miles from Tommy's house in the direction opposite the drive-in theater and Tommy's school. Their two farms both focused on tobacco and beef cows, with some corn and hay. Rachel and Luke were from two large families who were very religious, with strict interpretation of selected biblical passages. Their parents went to the drive-in theater to see movies with a biblical theme and movies involving car races. Horror movies were also very popular.

When Tommy welcomed Rachel and Luke into the projection booth, the three of them unknowingly had a lot in common, and they were three of the best students in the two counties. Rachel and Luke were excellent students in their county school. On the annual county-wide exams, Rachel and Luke scored highest in their county. Tommy's county had similar exams, and Tommy always scored at the top.

The three of them were comfortable in conversation, and Tommy liked their questions about the machines in the projection booth—the projectors, the arc lamps, and the generator to supply power to the arc lamps. Tommy showed them the multiple reels of film in metal containers and explained that each reel makes about sixteen minutes of the movie. Tommy explained the need for two projectors so that the movie was not interrupted when he switched from one reel to another.

The second time Rachel and Luke stopped in the projection booth, Tommy showed them how to change from one projector to the other, and they talked about splicing the film for previews and ads and cartoons and occasional accidental breaks in the 35 mm film. That evening, the movies ended earlier than usual, so Tommy asked Rachel and Luke to join him at a diner less than a mile away to get a milkshake. Tommy frequently went to the small diner that was always open, and the night waitress knew Tommy. She prepared a strawberry milkshake as soon as she saw his car.

In the diner sipping strawberry milkshakes, the three of them talked briefly about their families and a lot about their schools. All three were entering their junior year of high school. All three played in the school band. And of course, all three helped on their parents' farms and had specific chores on their farms. All three were the youngest in large farm families. They had a lot to talk about. As they talked and sipped milkshakes, they found similar interests, and they enjoyed talking with each other.

Luke and Tommy interacted like fellow students or like brothers. Tommy thought of Rachel as Luke's girlfriend, but he really liked her. Rachel seemed to focus on getting to know Tommy. She sensed that she and Tommy would be close friends, even as she dated Luke.

On another visit, Rachel asked about the audio speaker on the work bench. Tommy explained that one car started moving before they put the speaker back on the post. Such accidents happen frequently, so they were designed to break the speaker connections without breaking the windows on the cars. Rachel and Luke returned when Tommy was not too busy, and Tommy showed them how to fix the speaker.

Luke and Rachel talked with Tommy about their hikes with a friend named Mary, an only child who lived on a neighboring farm in their community. Their hikes were generally after church and lunch on Sunday. Their church services started at 9:00 a.m., so lunch was completed shortly after noon. Rachel and Luke suggested that Tommy join them for a hike next Sunday, and they gave Tommy directions to Mary's house. When the milkshakes were consumed, they exchanged phone numbers and headed for home, and they looked forward to their Sunday hike.

On Sunday, the three of them arrived at about the same time, and Rachel introduced Mary and Tommy. Mary's mother, Sarah, came to the front porch to greet the visitors. Mary's parents, Sarah and John, owned the farm of about two hundred acres. They hired two men to grow the tobacco and corn and to attend to the beef cows. The usual arrangement was a kind of lease contract where the landowner gets half of the value of the crop, and the workers get the other half. That freed John to work in his own nonfarm business. Sarah managed the finances for the farm and John's business.

As the teens arrived, Tommy and Sarah had a long conversation about her garden. In Tommy's family, he helped his mother with the garden work as he assumed more and more responsibility for the family garden. His mother taught him about gardening and also how to cook. So Tommy was very comfortable when talking gardening with Sarah.

After Tommy and Sarah toured the garden, the four teens walked along a ridge and then along a creek for more than a mile. They had continuous conversation, they admired some wild flowers, and they climbed trees. The area along the ridge was farmland. The region along the creek was wooded, with many large trees and shrubs and grass and flowering plants.

Mary dated a basketball player named Al, but she liked Tommy. Luke, and especially Rachel, tried to integrate Tommy into their group, and Tommy was quickly part of the group.

Between the ridge and the creek, they sighted walnut trees and hickory nut trees that had many nuts that were not yet ripe. Mary knew nothing about the nuts, but they all agreed that they should collect the nuts when they were ripe and ready to harvest.

Tommy spotted a patch of wild plum trees. The red plums were just ripening and a few had fallen to the ground. Tommy was familiar with the wild plums because he picked some on his parents farm. His parents were quite fond of the plums, eaten raw or to make jelly. Luke had a cloth bag that he used to bring small snacks. The four of them sat on a log and ate the snacks, then used the bag for the plums. Tommy picked only the ripe plums. The red plums were delicious when ripe and dark red but tasted sour when not quite ripe and bright red. Tommy asked them to taste the difference, and Rachel thought the difference was huge. Luke and Mary decided to trust Rachel's judgment. At the end of their hike, they gave the bag of plums to Mary's mother, Sarah, and promised to pick more next time.

The following weekend, the four hikers borrowed the tractor and wagon to get close to the plum trees. They collected the plums in smaller containers and carried the plums to the larger containers on the wagon. They collected more than two bushels of plums and drove the tractor back to the house and gave the plums to Sarah. Tommy thanked Sarah for letting them meet on the farm and for using the tractor and wagon. He volunteered to help with processing the plums, but Sarah insisted that she and Mary would do it.

Tommy asked about the potatoes in the garden. Sarah said that Mary's father, John, suffers from the lingering effects of a back injury, so he could not do some garden work and other things around the house and farm. Luke suggested that they dig the potatoes, and Tommy agreed. Sarah, Rachel, and Mary prepared a space for the potatoes in the barn, where the potatoes would be safe from animals and could dehydrate before they were taken to the house for the winter. They found some baskets for transporting the potatoes from garden to wagon to barn.

Luke and Tommy started digging and talking and leaving the potatoes on top of the ground. Rachel and Mary placed the potatoes in the containers. When the baskets were all full, Tommy and Luke moved the potatoes to the wagon and then to the barn. They continued for nearly two hours and completed the task. Then Luke asked about the onions. They spent another hour digging onions and moving them to the barn. Then Tommy had to go home to milk cows before going to work at the drive-in theater. He thanked Sarah for a nice day on her farm, and he apologized to Mary, Rachel, and Luke for leaving early. They agreed to meet the following weekend.

While driving home, Tommy realized that Mary was a good person. He found her interesting, but not really as interesting as Rachel and Luke. The four of them had fun on Mary's farm and especially on the hike. Tommy thought that Rachel and Luke may be as smart as him, but he thought Mary was not quite as good in school. He questioned his own judgment because he had spent more time and had more in common with Rachel and Luke. But he still liked having fun in their group of four. Tommy also liked Mary's mother, Sarah, who was friendly and good to them. Tommy liked to talk with Sarah, especially about the garden and lawn, and he liked doing some work in Sarah's garden. Sarah seemed genuinely interested in seeing the four teens playing and talking together.

Tommy accepted that Mary had a boyfriend named Al, who played basketball. Mary was a cheerleader, so Al seemed like a good match for her. When Mary was with Tommy, Rachel, and Luke, all four of them talked about a range of topics, and sometimes Mary would mention her cheerleading and Al's basketball practice. Tommy was much more interested in the pep band where Rachel played flute and Luke played alto sax. Rachel and Luke and Tommy listened to the details of cheerleader activities. Tommy played trombone