Elbert Dean Jr., best man
at best friend Dwain Jones' wedding.
Graduating from Merkel High School in 1947,
both attended Draughon's Business College, Abilene.
Dad and Dwain organized "the great getaway" for Dwain's wedding in Merkel. Dwain's "friends" had found and "painted up" Dwain's car at Dad and Mom's apartment at 313 E 6th, Colorado City. Dad took the car to a garage in Sweetwater and had it cleaned up. After the wedding at First Baptist Church, Merkel, Dad and Mom drove off with Dwain and Mona in the back seat of Dad's red Willis Jeepster. A long line of "friends" in their cars gave chase. Dad maneuvered his jeep down a one lane road between sandy fields until he came up behind another car which Dad and Dwain had placed in the road. All four jumped out and proceeded in the front vehicle, leaving Dad's jeep to block the road. The "friends" couldn't go around the parked jeep without getting stuck in sand, so they backed out. Idling their car from a secluded spot, all four watched the line of "friends" whiz by in their cars heading to Colorado City. With the partiers safely thrown off track and on their way to Colorado City, Dad and Mom drove bride and groom to Sweetwater and their waiting car. Dwain later wrote, "We could not have had our wedding without both of you. You and Jan got us out of Merkel and to Colorado City, where we had our car stashed."
Our family visited Dwain's when I was about 5 years old. Apart from the parents, we boys ate supper with Dwain's girls at a little table in the corner of the kitchen. Dwain's daughter Connie (about 4 years old) entertained us by eating from corner to corner through a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with both sides of the sandwich moving past Connie's cheeks toward her ears. (recollection by Steve Dean)