ARMED FORCES: One Changed His Mind

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Dickenson's parents hope to make up for his romantic difficulties. Out on her back porch, Bessie noted that water is now piped to the house from a mountain spring. "If Ed could only see how close the water is to the house," she said. "When Ed was home, the water was up on the hill and we had to carry it down." She moved back into the kitchen and tossed a fat slab of sausage into the frying pan. "We're gonna put on the big pot and the little one too. Keith Marrs is gonna bake a fruit cake—Ed loves fruit cake. We'll have fried chicken with lots of gravy. Ed likes soup beans, too; we'll have some of those."