JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: My First Real Girlfriend

Last night my Aunt Shirley died. She married my Uncle Fred in the summer of 1954. My Uncle Fred was 19 and she was 18. They lived in a tiny apartment in a little old lady’s house in Lubbock. In October my parents, my older sister, and my then one year old sister went to East Texas so my Dad could try out at a church in Lufkin, Texas. I stayed in Lubbock with Uncle Fred and Aunt Shirley. By then he was 20 and she was 19.

Uncle Fred was my favorite Uncle. My next favorite Uncle was Uncle Doc. Both were younger than my Dad, who was 23 when I was born in 1949. Each of them had lived with us when I was young, so I was very close to both of them. My Uncle Doc had a girlfriend he had married. Her name was LaQuita.

At age 4/5 I thought of Aunt Shirley and Aunt LaQuita as my girlfriends. My young uncles would take me places with them, and with their girlfriend/wife. I’d sit on the floor of the car in the front sometimes. It was cozy there, and very roomy. Seatbelts had not yet been invented.

Staying with Uncle Fred and Aunt Shirley in the middle of October 1954 was a treat. Uncle Fred worked at a laundry. I would stay at home with Aunt Shirley. She was short, bubbly, big smile, and I really liked her. She would take me places and buy me stuff I wouldn’t get with Mama and Daddy. Hostess cupcakes was one such treat. Two cupcakes. One pink, one white. Delicious!

She also bought me a little plastic rocket like thing you could put a “cap” in. Those were the caps we used in toy guns, and they would make a loud “bang” as the powder exploded. I could put a cap into it, and throw it at the sidewalk, and it would BANG! Well, I went out walking on the sidewalk and started playing with it. Two bigger boys came along and took it away from me. Stole it! What are you gonna do? Not cry. Boys don’t cry. Just tell Aunt Shirley and that was that.

One day Uncle Fred stopped by the apartment in midday in the van he drove for a Laundry company. I decided that I would get in the back of it and hide behind all that hanging laundry he was delivering. I waited until he was a good ten minutes from the apartment before I came out and “ta-da!” let him know I was there. Of course, he went back to the apartment and dropped me off.

Fast forward to November 2025. I usually talk to Uncle Fred and Aunt Shirley about once a month on the phone. Usually I will call them early in the day. Occasionally they would call me. I last spoke with them in early October.

November 8, 2025, I saw on my phone Uncle Fred was calling at 8:24 pm. I knew what it was before I answered it. Aunt Shirley had passed away. I could hear the grief, the pain, and sadness in his voice. She was 90. He is 91. You’d never know he was 91 if you were talking to him on the phone. His voice hasn’t changed since I was a kid. He was 14 when I was born, soon to be 15. He was the brother I never had, from my youngest years.

He lives in Arizona. Too far for either of us to be driving these days. We last saw each other in person about this time in 2019. Those bonds never break. I don’t think families have those kind of bonds much any more. When we were kids you knew your aunts and uncles. They were in your life and you were in theirs.