Sugar and Pap's 60th Anniversary

Happy 60th anniversary to Dave's grandparents!  We love you so much!!!

Dave's mom is having a big party for them at her house.  Becky's sisters (Sue) decided to surprise them with a talent show and wants every family to do something, but she only gave us a weeks notice.  So the night we learned of this talent show, I was thinking of what I could do and I came up with the idea of writing their story down in a fairytale fashion.  Luckily Dave's dad interviewed them in 1996 and I was able to get most of their story from that.  But I needed pictures, which only they had.  So on Saturday Dave and I decided to go up on Sunday and visit with them and gather some pictures and more information (that post will be later).  We had an absolute fabulous time visiting with them!!!!
Anyway... so for this book I wrote... I didn't have time for it to be published, so I printed all the pages myself.  I bought a binder with the clear plastic on the outside so I could put the cover of my book in it.  and I put each page in a page protectors and printed them on card stock.
I'm going to upload all the pages of the book and in case you can't read the story from those pictures of the pages, I'll copy and paste the entire story after all the pictures.  Just so you know... the great grandkids (Josh was the first) started calling Dave's grandmother "Sugar" because she called everyone else "Sugar"... so that is where the name comes from.
So here it is....

(This is the back cover...)

Sugarella

(title page…)

This is the tale of the young Princess Betty and her knight in the shiny airplane, Prince Calvin.

Written by Susan Staus

Based on a True Story

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, long ago, there lived a young princess named Betty Bailey.  She lived in the kingdom of Birmingham, Alabama under the rule of her parents King Hugh Lee Bailey and Queen Nettie Betha Bailey with her brothers Hugh Warren and Don and sisters Wanda and Cordella. 

Princess Betty spent her days obeying the commandments of the strict Queen, whatever the Queen asked her to do she would do it.  But while she went about her chores she dreamed dreams of a handsome prince in a shiny airplane, who would fly in one day and fly her off to his castle in the clouds.

Sometimes when the Queen was away on business at the local department store, Princess Betty and her siblings would jump rope, play hop scotch and she always loved a good game of softball during the summer months. 

Sometimes in her younger years Betty’s brother Hugh Warren would convince Don and her that they could fly and talk them into jumping off the roof of the barn.  At another time her brother Hugh Warren convinced her that he wanted to be a bee keeper.  They would all catch bees with their bare hands and put them into jars, until one day when a bee stung her and then Betty had enough of that.

Meanwhile in the kingdom of Julian, Pennsylvania lived a young prince named Howard Calvin Woodring, but he went by the name of Prince Calvin.  Prince Calvin and his brothers; Homer and Johnny, and his sisters; Ruth, Ethel, Edith, Mary, Elsie, Esther and Donna, faithfully served their King Howard Woodring and Queen Erdie Mae Woodring.

One year Prince Calvin didn’t have any shoes to wear to school, except an old pair of his father’s that would fall off every time he tried to walk.  Therefore, he stayed home from school that year.  Luckily he was home that winter, for one day while King Howard was at work and the older children at school, he smelled smoke.  Prince Calvin ran up to the attic to find it filled with smoke.  He grabbed baby Johnny and took him out into the snow while his mother attended to his handicapped sister, Ruth.  Prince Pap couldn’t put the fire out because all the pipes were frozen.  He threw as much as he could out the windows and into the snow, in an effort to save as much as he could.  The castle had burnt to the ground.  King Howard fixed up a villager’s shed and converted it into a new castle for the family.  This new castle didn’t have a bathroom or running water, but they were happy to have a warm place to sleep and grateful no lives were lost in the horrible fire.

Prince Calvin loved more than anything to play baseball, his favorite position to play was second base.  When he wasn’t playing baseball he was playing hide-n-seek, tag, kick the can or was watching the airplanes fly around at their local airport with the King.  It was watching the airplanes fly around that made him want to be a pilot someday. 

And so when he was old enough in 1942 he began the paper work to join the Army Air Corps (it wasn’t the air force until after the war) to defend his kingdom and learn to fly.  On December 23,1944 his dream came true and he became the prince in the shiny airplane, when he earned his silver wings of pilot and was appointed second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps .

In the Air Corp Prince Calvin quickly became friends with Sir Andy.  Calvin thought Sir Andy’s wife, Wanda, was beautiful and as nice as can be and he decided then, that if she had a sister he would marry her.

When transfers came up in the year of 1945 prince Calvin volunteered to be stationed in Montgomery, which was only a 100 miles from Birmingham, Alabama, where Sir Andy would be stationed.  While on a few days vacation he took the train into Birmingham and had dinner at the home of Sir Andy’s parents, with Sir Andy and his wife, Wanda.  After the wonderful dinner Sir Andy and Wanda took Prince Calvin to the movies, but before the movies they stopped at the castle of Birmingham to pick up Princess Betty.  Sir Andy and Wanda were secretly setting Prince Calvin up with the lovely Princess Betty.

When Prince Calvin caught sight of Princess Betty he could not take his eyes off her.  She was so beautiful, all smiles and very giddy.  When they got to the movie theater he ignored everything around him, the Prince sat down beside her, put his arm around her and did not let go of her throughout the whole movie.  After the movie the prince and princess were sitting on the couch talking when they heard Sir Andy and Wanda honk the horn in the car outside, for they were waiting to take the prince back to his hotel.  But before he left he asked the lovely princess if he could kiss her goodnight and she shook her head yes.  He was astonished that a Princess would let him kiss her on their first date, but she was fearful that she would never see him again.  So he kissed the princess ever so gently.  It was at the touch of love’s first kiss that the princess knew she would marry the prince someday and her dreams would come true.

The Prince headed off back to his hotel and then back to duty in the Air Corps.  Princess Betty wrote her true love everyday until they could see each other again.  And the prince wrote back, for he too knew they were meant to be married someday.

Prince Calvin & Sir Andy were preparing to go to fight in the war with the Kingdom of Japan.   But before they left they were granted with two weeks vacation.  They spent their vacation in Birmingham, so Prince Calvin could be with Princess Betty and Sir Andy with his wife, Betty’s sister.  While on vacation at the Castle of Birmingham news broke out that war was over.  In celebration the King and Queen started throwing water into the air, which resulted in a playful water fight inside the castle.  Prince Calvin’s bed ended up being soaked with water but he didn’t care because the war with the Kingdom of Japan was over and Prince Calvin and Sir Andy would not have to go off to battle.

Prince Calvin returned from vacation to finish his service in the Air Corp then he went home to his Kingdom of Julian to start work and sadly lost touch with Princess Betty.

For 5 years he and Princess Betty had not spoken.  Until one day when Princess Betty wrote to Prince Calvin.  He immediately wrote back and they continued to write, send pictures to each other and talk on the phone.  Finally on Memorial Day weekend Prince Calvin was granted some vacation and went down to visit Princess Betty.

It was then they decided to marry in November when Prince Calvin would be allowed to have more vacation from his construction job.  The King and Queen of Birmingham didn’t want them to wait that long because they couldn’t afford the phone bills from those two talking so much.  So Prince Calvin begged for time off over the weekend of July 4^th and he was granted it.

Prince Calvin and Princess Betty were married on July 3, 1950.  It was a simple wedding, but it was all they wanted.  They were finally wed and would be together forever, and that was all they could ask for. The King and Queen of Birmingham were so delighted in their new son in-law.

After the wedding the Prince and his new bride rode off to his castle in Julian, PA to meet King Howard Woodring.  Everyone in the Kingdom was delighted with the prince’s new bride for they were living in such hard times; they needed the help of this lovely new princess. 

When they arrived Princess Betty was surprised to see the conditions they were living in, they didn’t even have running water in the castle.  She was determined to help the kingdom of Julian.  During their first years of marriage Betty and Calvin took in some of his younger siblings at different times to help out the king while he struggled through life without his beloved Queen, who passed away 6 years before the marriage of Prince Calvin.

Princess Betty was filled with so much love and sweetness she became Queen Sugarella and her handsome husband became King Pap.  They moved around for awhile, spending time in Pennsylvania and then a few years in Florida before they moved back to Pennsylvania to stay.

They ruled over their 150 acre kingdom in Julian, PA with 3 beautiful daughters;  Rebecca, Susan and Amy; 12 fabulous grandchildren; Scott, Pollyanna, David, Matthew, Elizabeth, Andrew, Stephen, Angie, Emily, George Edward, Taryn, and Dominic; and 19 precious great-grandchildren; Caelin, Chase, Joshua, Rhett, Austin, Trevor, Carolynn, Ayden, Kieran, Adison, Reagan, Jacob, baby Calvin, Jayden, Tanner, Calvin, Damean, Finneas, Corban, and with many more great-grandchildren to come.

Queen Sugarella and King Pap taught their people to love God and to be kind to everyone.  They were the most righteous king and queen the kingdom has ever seen.  The people of the kingdom love their king and queen so much and couldn’t be happier.

They all lived under the rule of Queen Sugarella and King Pap happily ever after….

(for more than 60 years)

(back cover…)

Are you of Woodring or Bailey blood?  Well, it doesn’t matter.  This fairytale story of true love is riveting and exciting.  You will laugh and cry as you read the tale of true love dating back more than 60 years ago.  This story will capture the hearts of all.  You will want to read it every night to your children just before bed.

Happy 60^th Wedding Anniversary

Queen Sugarella and King Pap!!!