Ann Asks: How you met the Wilsons

Just to set the scene and the chronology – I moved to Atlanta to take the job at Emory in March of 1975. Jean and I married in June of 1976. Jean moved to Atlanta that summer and began teaching at Avondale High School.


The short version:

We met Anne and Earl Wilson through Dolores Hall, a colleague of mine in the Emory University Registrar’s Office. Earl Wilson and Dolores’ husband, Gene Hall, had been fraternity brothers when they were in college at Mercer University. Actually, I think they were all at Mercer at the same time.


The long version:

Shortly after Jean and I married, which coincided with Gene Hall’s 50th birthday, Dolores invited us to spend the weekend at their lake house on Lake Hartwell. The lake house was a long trailer permanently situated in the woods. The Halls had several acres of land at Lake Hartwell that included a log cabin. Jean and I stayed in the log cabin.

Up the hill from the Halls’ trailer was a house owned by the Wilsons. The Halls and the Wilsons have been lifelong friends since their days at Mercer University shortly after WW II. It was their custom to invite each other for drinks before dinner each evening while up at the lake, and sometimes to have dinner together.

The Halls invited us up to the lake to stay in their cabin several times, and on each occasion we would end up having drinks, and possibly dinner, with the Wilsons. Our friendship developed from those visits in the late 1970s. We’ve been good friends for 35 years.

Tom
June 2011