February 26, 1898, 1953, 1975

February 26th always conjures up memories for me. Three very special events occurred on this date. Two were planned, but the first was not.

Enos George Heacock

On this date in 1898, my maternal grandfather, Enos George Heacock, was born. I know next to nothing of his early life.  My brother, Russ, though, says that Grandma told him that Enos had been kicked in the head by a horse when he was 19. Evidently he had issues with that intermittently over the years, but he had worked in the Sebring (Ohio) potteries and could support his family. In the early 1950s, however, he and my grandmother had been in a serious automobile accident that had left him permanently disabled. I remember him experiencing at least two strokes during my younger years. I never knew my grandfather when he wasn’t slurred of speech and slow of shuffled step. I remember a usually good-natured old gentlemen. By July 1976, when Beth and I were married, Grandpa was in a nursing home and couldn't come. He died in September of that year.

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Nutt
February 26, 1953

Mom and Dad were married at First Christian Church in Alliance, Ohio, Grandpa's 55th birthday. It was a Thursday. That seems strange by the customs of our day. I'm sure Mom wanted it to be on that day because of Grandpa. I never heard why or any other story. I like to think, perhaps, she wanted to honor Grandpa because of the accident that left him "never the same."

Dad had just gotten out of the Army. He had been drafted in late 1950 or '51. Dad told me before he died that he asked Mom to marry him then before he left for the Army. She said no. But she waited and Dad mustered out in December of '52.

We know next to nothing of their romance. We have a stack of letters from Dad to Mom while he was in the Army, but personal things are not discussed much. So many stories also die with the dead.

Beth Conkey and Chuck Nutt
February 26, 1975

I picked February 26th, 1975, to make our engagement official. We invited our parents to The Pines restaurant in Canton, Ohio, where we were both in college at Malone University. There I asked Beth's Dad, Rev. James Conkey for Beth's hand in marriage. He was a little preoccuppied with an ambulance siren in the neighborhood, but he came around and said yes.

The photograph is our "Official" Engagement Portrait. That girl is so GORGEOUS! And yes, for you old-timers, I am wearing a Leisure Suit.

So, February 26th--A Day in the Life and one the milestones in the story of the Nutt family.