Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024 - 8

WORST, BEST AND ALL THEREAFTER
Speaking of Christmas
TEXT AND PHOTO BY BRUCE INGRAM | PHOTO STYLING BY JANETTE SPENCER
The decades have provided annual markers for a marriage and a life.
T
he worst-and darkest-
Christmas for me was the
one in 1974. I had graduated
from Roanoke College
that spring and unable to find a job as
a high school English teacher, had spent
the fall and winter working as a janitor
at a McDonald's in Roanoke, Virginia. I
earned $2.10 an hour, a princely nickel
more than most hourly workers, because
of the arduous nature of the position.
When hired, my first assigned task was
to climb into the eatery's dumpster and
" hop it down. " It's " too full " my supervisor
explained.
For Christmas Day that year, my boss
offered me " 20 dollars cash, tax free "
if I went to another Roanoke McDonald's
and cleaned up the mountains of
grease that had accumulated under the
grill-a task he estimated would take no
more than four hours but actually took
six. My Grandmother Margarette, who
lived nearby, had offered to launder and
starch my white McDonalds' shirt beforehand
so I " would look sharp. " A few
minutes after crawling under the grill,
grease had sullied my shirt and soul.
That ill-begotten day, I thought constantly
of Elaine Adams, a Clifton Forge,
Virginia, girl I had met
that summer
while working at nearby Camp Easter
Seal. I had fallen hopelessly in love with
Elaine, but had been too shy to tell her
how I felt or even strike up a conversation.
The nadir of my day at McDonald's
came when a customer came to the
entrance and demanded service. He was
not satisfied with my response
that I was only a janitor and
wasn't allowed to serve meals.
Miracles can happen,
though, for three years later,
I reveled in my best Christmas
ever-the first one which
Elaine and I spent as an engaged
couple. Longtime readers of this
column already know the backstory.
How Elaine rejected me the first five
times I asked for a date, finally, deigning
to go out with me when I asked for a
sixth time. How, amazingly, on our fifth
date, she confessed that she was in love
with me. How I promptly asked her to
marry me, which she consented to do.
And, how we've been euphorically happy
for 46 years as husband and wife.
Christmas Eve of 1977, we had
lunch with my parents and dinner with
hers. But it was Christmas Day that
Elaine came down early so that we could eat breakfast
and open presents together and revel in our being a
couple on Christmas morning for the first time.
That day all our dreams seemed possible.
8 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
ABOVE: Elaine
and Bruce
celebrate the
Christmas of
2014 with each
other and their
family.
proved most special to us. Elaine came
down early so that we could eat breakfast
and open presents together and
revel in our being a couple on Christmas
morning for the first time. That day
all our dreams seemed possible. Of our
both becoming school teachers, of having
children, of living in a nice house
with land in these mountains
and of my becoming a professional
writer.
Without a doubt, the first
few years were difficult financially.
Our starter house was
impossibly small for the two of
us and became even more so
when Sarah and Mark were born. Five
years into our marriage, we discovered
that our combined teaching salaries
would not enable us to send our kids
to college. That revelation caused us to
decide that it was time for me to try to
become a writer...which like everything
else at that time for us (except the love
we shared for each other) proved to be
a struggle.
But eventually the stories, and later
the books, began to sell. Years and decades
passed and Christmases came and
went... all wonderful because of Elaine.
We built the home of our dreams on
38 acres in Botetourt County, Virginia.
Sarah, her husband and their two children
live in another house on the land.
And Mark lives just a few miles away on
another of our rural properties in these
mountains. Thanks, sweetheart, for the
love and life you have given me.
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Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024

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