Oliver Ballard, one of Brandon’s Boys, was a junior at Baltimore High during the 2014-15 school year. He was sixteen on 9 October 2014, but was a year ahead of his age cohort, having examed out of many of his classes as a result of studies during the summer. The boy was clearly quite intelligent, and basked in the praise which that brought him from Brandon Dowling. He was athletic, loving soccer and playing on the Baltimore team both fall and spring. He also was an active equestrian, getting out to Todd Farm whenever he could to ride, although he was not good enough to enter competitions. He recognized this, but he still enjoyed the exercise and the connections with horses. Along with Daniel Marlow and Raman Gillespie, he formed the Todd’s Beauty fan club among Brandon’s Boys, which definitely endeared him to Chris Todd. In addition, as a result of the legal proceedings following his admission of his identity in December of 2010, Oliver was an heir of a significant estate from both his mother and his father. Those proceedings established that his father was the late Jonathan Edward Ballard and his mother the late Mae Elizabeth Hinds Ballard Sipes. She was the heiress of her parents and of her husband, and Oliver was her universal heir. But he kept his estate pretty quiet, not wanting to engage in comparisons with the others at Brandon’s Boys. Some goods were in storage, and his financial assets were administered by Ted Williams at Holloway & Lynn, the premier investment house in Clifton.
During the 2014-15 school year, Oliver became interested in a girl in a serious manner for the first time. The girl in questions was Mallory Amanda Hoff. Mallory was only about two and a half months younger than Oliver, but, as a result of him skipping a grade, she was a grade behind him, being a sophomore at Baltimore. She lived with her foster family, Javier and Amanda Martinez, but was aware that her biological father was Bernard Amadeus Hoff, Jr. Bernie was a medical doctor, and was now settled down in a stable marriage, but as an undergraduate had engaged in some pretty irresponsible activities. Among other things, he impregnated a girl named Mallory Jennings, and as a result young Mallory Amanda was born on 22 December 1998. As her mother had conceived a strong dislike for the baby as a result of a difficult pregnancy, and Bernie was in no position to care for her himself at that time, young Mallory was raised by Bernie’s half-sister, Amanda Martinez, from birth. When Mallory Jennings died in March of 2002, young Mallory Amanda, as her only child, inherited her portion of the Jennings estate. Like Oliver’s inheritance, this was primarily in the form of investments administered by Holloway & Lynn. Like her mother, young Mallory was a blonde with blue eyes. She had a very attractive figure, honed by regular athletic activity. She played soccer for the girls’ team at Baltimore, and was a swimmer, although not on a competitive basis. She was also a member of the Children of the American Revolution (CAR) on her Morgan ancestry, which had been that which qualified her father as well. Bernard Amadeus Hoff, Jr. was a son of Bernard Amadeus Hoff, Sr. and Alexandra Morgan. When the school year began, Mallory was still virgo intacta.
Oliver and Mallory began their significant relationship during the fall semester. He invited her to several social events, culminating in three events in October. On October 18 Oliver took Mallory to the Madison Forest Horse Show, where, although he did not compete, he showed his knowledge of equestrian affairs. The following weekend was Homecoming at Baltimore, and Oliver proudly escorted Mallory to all the associated events, including the game and the dance afterwards. It was then that they became really intimate for the first time, although they did not go all the way yet. The next day Oliver invited Mallory to lunch at Brandon’s Boys. She was amused at the antics of a house full of boys, but after lunch the boys allowed her and Oliver to have some time alone in the room he shared with Daniel Marlow. Daniel and the other boys would tease Oliver later, but they would not embarrass him or Mallory when she was there at the house. But it was the following weekend, when Oliver invited her to the teen Hallowe’en party at the Kossakoff place, that they finally made it official. It was a costume party, which possibly removed some inhibitions. In any case, late in the evening Mallory went to a room with Oliver, and there surrendered her virginity. By Thanksgiving they were generally acknowledged at Brandon’s Boys, at Todd House, and at the Martinez place as a couple.
It was Mallory who got Oliver involved in family history. She talked about her involvement with the CAR, and she marched in the Christmas Parade on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, waving to Oliver as she passed. This encouraged him to dig into his genealogical past. It looked pretty straightforward, as the Ballards were pretty well documented. He traced a line of descend from his father, Jonathan Edward Ballard, back to the Ballards of Virginia. His father, Jonathan Edward Ballard (1963-2000), on whose line he applied for membership in the CAR, was a son of Edward Bland Ballard (1940-2002), who was a son of James Edward Ballard (1914-1998), who was a son of James Bland Ballard (1887-1954), who was a son of Thomas Bland Ballard (1860-1924), who was a son of Thomas Edward Ballard (1836-1898), who was a son of James Edward Ballard (1809-1884), who moved his family from Oldham County to Lexington, and was the son of James Ballard (1783-1841), who was the son of Bland Williams Ballard (1759-1853), who was involved in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and who was the son of Bland Ballard (1735-1788), who was killed in the Tick Creek Massacre in Shelby County, and who was a son of Bland Ballard (1704-1792) of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, who was a son of William Ballard (1687-1754), who was the son of Thomas Ballard (1654-1706), who was the son of Thomas Ballard (1630-1684). It was this first Thomas who was the emigrant from England, and who served on the Council at the time of Bacon’s Rebellion. As this Thomas was also an ancestor of Sandy Todd, they were related, although distantly.
In the process of assembling the documentation for his application to the CAR, Oliver delved for the first time into papers inherited from his parents, and kept up to now in storage. There did not seem at first to be anything there which challenged the obvious family history as preserved in other sources. But included among the papers was a journal compiled by his mother. He put that aside, and decided to read through it over the Christmas holidays. It was this which gave Oliver a completely different account of his immediate ancestry.
Mae Elizabeth Hinds, the mother of Oliver and the widow of Jonathan Edward Ballard, related that she was born on 2 March 1970. She said in the journal that she was the daughter of Alexandra Morgan and William Evans, and the wife of Jonathan Edward Ballard. This caused Oliver to go back and check, as this was not the established family history. According to the records he had submitted to CAR, his mother was the daughter of Constance Morgan and Charles Edward Hinds. Mae related that her mother had been a nursing student at the time she became pregnant by another student at the University of Kentucky. Fearing both her family’s reaction and the impact this might have on her career, Alexandra bore her daughter in secret, then entrusted the girl to her elder sister, Connie, who was married to Charles Hinds, who had no children of their own. If this is correct, Oliver decided, he had no Hinds ancestry, so it was good that he had not applied to CAR on that line. Mae related that her biological father, William Evans, abandoned her mother and disappeared shortly learning of the pregnancy, and she knew of him only because of the history told her on the occasion of her engagement to Jonathan Edward Ballard many years later. She married Jon on 3 June 1992 when she was 22 and had just graduated from UK. He was several years older and already established, and of a good family. Mae said Jon was a wonderful husband, but despite their joint efforts, it was years after the marriage before they had the child which they both yearned for. During the early months of 1998, Jon and Mae took a relaxing New Years cruise on the Caribbean, which seems to have done the trick. A month after their return, to their delight, they discovered that she was pregnant. The result, nine months later, was Edward Oliver Ballard, born on 9 October. Two years later, Jon died of a debilitating disease, and Mae later married her second husband, who, she said, was a great disappointment, both as a bed partner and as a companion.
By the time Oliver completed his study of his mother’s journal, he had a significantly altered version of his ancestry. He was still a descendant of the Ballards of Virginia through Jonathan Ballard. But his mother was not the daughter of Charles and Constance Hinds, as indicated on her birth certificate, and he was not actually related to the Hinds family. Oliver felt a bit guilty about that, as he had an inheritance from them, but the Hinds couple had raised Mae, and had appointed her as their heiress in their respective wills. Both were now deceased. Moreover, one of the names introduced by his mother’s journal sounded familiar. After all, although his girlfriend was living in the home of Javier and Amanda Martinez, she had talked about her ancestry enough to recognize that the name Morgan was significant.
What Mallory confessed to Oliver at Christmas time, in a burst of confidentiality, is that she was illegitimate, her mother never having married Bernie Hoff, the father on her birth certificate. But she also mentioned that Bernie was a physician, practicing in Clifton, and in fact at the Todd Medical Clinic. He was the son of Dr. Bernard Amadeus Hoff Sr. of Minneapolis and his second wife, Alexandra Morgan. She had been embarrassed by her revelations to him, but she said if they were going to be serious about each other, there could be no secrets. After reading his mother’s journal, Oliver immediately shared it with Mallory. He wanted to share this discovery with Mallory both in order to assuage any feeling of shame about her origins, and to assure her that he also would share any information about his family with her. While Mallory was embarrassed by the illegitimacy in his ancestry, Oliver now pointed out that he had the same issue in his. And they were intrigued by the fact that they evidently shared a grandmother named Alexandra Morgan.
It was the evening of Monday, January 5. They were at Brandon’s Boys, but in a lounge on the first floor not usually used by the boys. They had chosen that place in order to have some privacy. There, they discussed the revelations contained in Oliver’s mother’s journal. They decided, based on Oliver’s memory of his mother and the inherent probabilities in the journal, that there was no reason to doubt the truth of what was contained in that notebook. The second decision they arrived at was that there was no reason to try to correct Oliver’s application to the CAR. He was still a descendant of the qualifying ancestor claimed, not of the Hinds on his mother’s side. There was no reason to create a controversy by publicizing the affaire of his grandmother. Finally, they decided that, no matter what the journal indicated, they were still boyfriend and girlfriend, and very definitely wanted to continue their relationship, even if they were cousins.
When they arrived at this decision, Mallory accompanied Oliver upstairs to his room, and engaged in an enthusiastic display of family relationships. A couple of hours later, Daniel arrived, and found the door locked. He laughed, told his companions that Oliver must be in there with Mallory again, and slept elsewhere that night. In the morning, Oliver and Mallory showed up for breakfast, and weathered the comments of the other boys with a grin.
Oliver and Mallory decided on one final check on the reliability of Mae Ballard’s journal. They went to see Dr. Bernard Amadeus Hoff, Jr. Bernie was the acknowledged biological father of Mallory, so she had a reason to ask to see him. They met over lunch at The 1812 Restaurant. Bernie was always glad to see his daughter, and always felt guilty in some way that he did not do more for her, but she did not see it that way at all. She was quite content being a member of the Martinez household. After all, after Bernie married his wife Cindy, he offered to take her in, but she chose to remain with the Martinezes.
Over lunch, the two youngsters explained their reason for asking for the meeting. Oliver pointed our the passages in his mother’s journal concerning her birth to Alexandra Morgan, then being adopted by Alexandra’s sister, Constance and her husband, Charles Hinds. Bernie confirmed that his mother was named Alexandra Morgan, and had been his father’s nurse before they ran off together, abandoning the elder Dr. Hoff’s first wife and children. He had been an inveterate philanderer, and it was at least possible that Alexandra had killed herself over her inability to accept this fact. Bernie noted that there was no actual evidence that his father ever divorced his first wife or married Alexandra, so he was quite possibly illegitimate as well. Fortunately, the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and the companion societies decided some years ago that membership was based on the blood relationship, not on legitimacy or the lack thereof. So, when Bernie applied for the SAR on his mother’s ancestry, he did not have to prove that she was married to his father.
Oliver asked whether he would be willing to submit to a DNA test. He made it clear that he was well situated financially, and so was not looking for anything along those lines. He was just curious about his ancestry. Bernie agreed. And so both Bernie and Oliver had DNA samples taken, and analyzed at the new facility on campus. As there was no rush, it was April before they received a reply. But the results were conclusive. Bernard Amadeus Hoff Jr. and Edward Oliver Ballard were closely related. Bernie and Oliver enjoyed a Bourbon over that, and agreed that it was an interesting chapter in family history. Meanwhile, Oliver and Mallory grew closer as a result of these discoveries, rather than being driven apart. By the time the spring semester came to a conclusion, Oliver and Mallory were definitely an item. But the seed had been planted, and Oliver’s interest in genealogy grew as well.
The Morgan Connection
When Bernie Hoff sought to look into his maternal ancestry in order to qualify for SAR, he discovered that his mother’s parents were still alive, but they had been highly disapproving of their daughter’s affaire, and would have no contact with her children. That did not prevent Bernie from getting information from public sources, such as birth and marriage records, and thus being able to document his descent from Jonathan Morgan, a private from New Jersey, who served during the American Revolution, and thus obtaining his membership in SAR.
But Oliver was curious about his Morgan ancestry. While he was actually a grandson of Alexandra Morgan, he was officially a grandson of her sister, Constance Morgan Hinds. Both Constance Morgan Hinds and her husband were now deceased, leaving no children, so he could get no information from that source. Using this connection, however, he wrote to the Morgans of southeast Ohio, asking for information in a carefully worded enquiry. He received a response from William Morgan, a brother of both Alexandra and Constance. Great Uncle William spent a good part of his letter discoursing on the virtues of his sister Constance, and simply mentioned the existence of Alexandra, with the comment that the family had lost contact with her in the 1970s. William was evidently under the impression that Constance actually was the mother of Mae Elizabeth, and Oliver decided it would serve no purpose to inform him of the content of his mother’s memoir.
Uncle William wrote that his parents were now both deceased. His father had been Oliver Morgan, who lived from 1913 to 1998, while his mother was Ethel Taylor, whose dates were 1916 to 2010. With this information and the SAR application filed by Bernie Hoff, Oliver made his way back to Jonathan Morgan (1738-1808), the private in the New Jersey militia. But Oliver was not content to stop there, as Bernie had done. He was able to document Jonathan Morgan’s birth in Connecticut as the son of an earlier Jonathan Morgan (1711-1796), who was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and moved to Connecticut, and from there to New Jersey. Although too old for military service, this older Jonathan also contributed to the Patriot cause with civil service and financial support at a time when the colony of New Jersey was greatly divided.
Once in Springfield, the research became easier. From the earlier Jonathan Morgan, Oliver traced his ancestry to David Morgan (1679-1760), then to an older David Morgan (1648-1731), and then to Miles Morgan (1615-1699), the immigrant ancestor, who was born in Landaff, Wales, and arrived at Boston in 1636 on the ship “Mary.” Although Miles Morgan became a captain in the colonial militia, he is not the Captain Morgan for whom the rum is named, to the disappointment of Oliver. That is Henry Morgan (1635-1688), also Welsh, but a buccaneer in the Caribbean.
Miles Morgan was, however, sufficiently interesting in his own right. A native of Glamorganshire in Wales, Miles, with two of his brothers, arrived in Massachusetts in April of 1636 at the age of 21 on the ship “Mary,” having sailed from Bristol, and landing in Boston. After a short time, he joined the company of Sir William Pynchon for the colonization of western Massachusetts, and was one of the founders of Agawam, an Indian name, which was later changed to Springfield. He was awarded the rank of sergeant, marking him as second in command of the militia at the new settlement. On the voyage from Bristol to Boston, Miles met a young woman named Prudence Gilbert. Unlettered, he had someone else write a letter to her proposing marriage. She had settled in Beverly. When she accepted, he traveled 120 miles across Massachusetts accompanied by a pack horse, two companions, and an Indian guide. They were married in Beverly in 1642.
In Springfield, Miles not only farmed his own land, but was also the town butcher. Later he acquired a boat, which he used to trade up and down the Connecticut River. In the town minutes of this period, he is referred to as selectman, constable, surveyor, fence viewer, and overseer of roads. He also had an unusual charge, which was to sit in the balcony during church services and maintain order among the young men and boys of the town. The Morgan home in Springfield was on the Connecticut River, and was fortified. During King Philip’s War, Springfield was attacked on 5 October 1675, when Morgan’s fortified home became a center of resistence. One of his sons was killed in this fray. They held out until the Massachusetts militia under Captain Samuel Appleton arrived to relieve them. This qualified Oliver (and Bernie, too) for membership in the Society of Colonial Wars.
Miles died on 28 May 1699, and was buried in Springfield. Oliver delivered the results of his researches not only to Mallory, but also to Bernie and to Uncle William in Ohio, for which he was sincerely thanked.
Col. Thomas Ballard
Oliver also became intrigued by the adventures of two of his Ballard ancestors, Thomas (1630-1689) and Bland (1761-1853). Thomas Ballard is the earliest uncontested ancestor on the Ballard line, although there is circumstantial evidence that he was a son of the Henry Ballard named in records of 1636, in which case he would have arrived in Virginia in 1635 on the ship “James” with his family. He was very likely born in 1630 at Inkberrow in Worcestershire. In 1650 he married Anne Thomas, who would be his consort until her death in 1678. Thomas was a resident of York County at the time of his marriage. His second wife was Anne Hilliard. On 16 July 1655 Thomas patented 1,000 acres in Gloucester County, in an area later part of Kent County, by right of having imported twenty persons.
In 1663 Thomas took up residence in James City County, and was chosen to represent James City in the House of Burgesses in 1666. In late 1666 he served as a member of the commission to discuss tobacco prices with representatives of Maryland and Carolina, being the only Virginia representative to dissent from the agreement, which was later voided anyway. For his services , Thomas was made a member of the Council advising Governor Sir William Berkeley. He made his home at Middle Plantation at least by 1668. There, on 28 January 1674, he purchased from Thomas Ludwell a large tract of land which included all the grounds of the present William & Mary College campus.
During Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, Nathaniel Bacon and the rowdy frontiersmen who made up his army besieged Governor Berkeley and the Council in Jamestowne. As a weapon of war, they rounded up the wives of the Council members, and stationed them on the palisade they had constructed as their protection during the siege. This effectively prevented the government troops from utilizing their weapons. Anne Ballard was one of the women so treated, which may have contributed to her death not long after. This event really stuck in the memory of Oliver.
Thomas Ballard also served as a member of the Virginia militia, in which capacity he gained the title of colonel, and as a vestryman of Bruton Parish. He died on 24 March 1689 at Middle Plantation, which would soon be renamed Williamsburg. He was buried at Bruton Parish Church.
Bland Ballard
The second of his Ballard ancestors to fascinate Oliver was called Bland Ballard. The name ‘Bland’ was derived from the maiden name of Elizabeth Bland, first wife of Thomas Ballard Jr. (1654-1706), son of the original Thomas Ballard of Bacon’s Rebellion fame. Bland Williams Ballard was born on 16 October 1761 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, son of Bland Ballard Jr. (1735-1788) and his first wife Elizabeth Williams. As a young man, he came to Kentucky with his father and family in 1779, and immediately joined the militia of what was then Kentucky County. He served under Col. John Bowman against the British and their Indian allies, and accompanied George Rogers Clark in the campaign against the Piqua towns, in present day Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1780. He was involved in the Long Run Massacre on 14 September 1781, in which a party of Indians attacked a group of settlers attempting to flee from Squire Boone’s settlement of Painted Stone Station to stronger defenses in Jefferson County. 1782 saw Ballard again with Clark on a second raid on the Piqua towns. Even after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the conflict with the Indians continued. In 1786 he served Clark as a “spy,” i.e. scout and intelligence gatherer, in the expedition on the Wabash against Kickapoo and Miami warriors who had seized Vincennes. Then, in 1788, the conflict came home with the Tick Creek Massacre. Bland Ballard, Jr.’s family had moved to an exposed position on Tick Creek, near Tyler Station, in what is now Shelby County. There, on 31 March 1788, the family were surprised by a band of Delaware Indians. After a mighty conflict, Bland Ballard, Jr., was killed, along with his second wife, his son Benjamin, his son John, and a small daughter, Elizabeth, issue of the second marriage. Bland Williams Ballard fought against the Indians, killing six of them. Subsequently, Ballard served with General Anthony Wayne, being present at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on 20 August 1794. He was actively involved in the Indian wars leading up to the War of 1812, including being present for the Battle of Tippecanoe on 7 November 1811. William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, moved against Prophetstown, the stronghold of the Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh on Tippecanoe creek. On the morning when talks were to begin, Harrison’s men were attacked. Despite being outnumbered, they defeated the enemy, Tecumseh being away at the time. When war broke out, Ballard led a company under Colonel John Allen in the campaign of 1812-13. Ballard was among the first to enter Frenchtown on 18 January, but at the disastrous Battle of the River Raisin on 22 January 1813, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Fortunately, he was one of those sent to Fort George, and thus escaped the subsequent massacre of prisoners. He was released at the end of the war in 1815. During the war, he was granted the rank of major. At one time, Bland Ballard said he had killed about 30 or 40 Indians at one time or another, partly in revenge for the killing of his family.
In addition to his role as a scout and Indian fighter, Bland Williams Ballard also served as a representative of Shelby County in the Kentucky General Assembly in 1795, 1800, 1803, 1805, and 1811. The 1795 tax lists show him with four properties on the Jefferson/Shelby county line amounting to 1,350 acres. He also surveyed the road from Shelbyville to the falls of the Ohio, which subsequently became US Highway 60. About 1782 he married Elizabeth Williamson, and after her death in 1833 he married Dinah Matthews, then Elizabeth Weaver Garrett. Bland Williams Ballard died on 5 September 1853 at his home in Shelby County. He was buried near his home, but over a year later he was re-interred in the State Cemetery in Frankfort.
His son, James (1783-1841) moved to Oldham County, and his son, James Edward (1809-1884), moved from Oldham County to Lexington, where Oliver was born and raised.
Oliver and Mallory
By the summer of 2015, Oliver Ballard and Mallory Hoff were both 16 years old. He had completed his junior year at Baltimore High, and she her sophomore year. Like all the members of the Ballard family Oliver was brunet and brown-eyed, and had straight, white teeth. He claimed his only genetic inheritance from his Welsh ancestors was a good singing voice. He stood at five foot nine, a little taller than average for his age, and weighed about 135 pounds. Mallory was a blonde, although she insisted that she was not a dumb blonde, and her school record supported her claim. She had blue eyes, stood right at five foot four, and weighed about 115 pounds. Their Welsh musical background came out in membership in the choir at St. Rose and in chorus classes at school. They both appeared in musical performances at school as well, and simply liked singing with each other. In addition to music, the two shared an interest in soccer, being on their respective teams at Baltimore. They also liked running together and swimming together, but were not on organized teams for these activities. In addition, they both enjoyed riding, although, again, not in a competitive manner. Both were observant of their religious obligations. Both were active in the Sibyl Ludington CAR chapter.
Since the previous Thanksgiving they were acknowledged as boyfriend and girlfriend, and were involved in a sexual relationship. Although Oliver’s friends and Mallory’s as well teased them quite a bit, no one at either Brandon’s Boys or at the Martinez home on Floral Court objected to their relationship, as long as they were responsible about it. Among other things, that meant being discrete, closing doors, and not letting small children get involved.
On the Saturday after Independence Day, Oliver and Mallory had a lengthy discussion about their relationship and plans for the future. Both asserted the desire not only to continue the relationship, but to see it bloom in the future. At this point, they expected to be together on a permanent basis. They discussed sex at length, and agreed to continue what most adult inhabitants of the Neighborhood regarded as responsible practices. First of all, even between boyfriend and girlfriend, there would be no pressures exerted. On occasion, especially when Mallory was having her period, one or the other simply did not feel like sex, and this was to be respected. They further agreed that there would be no children until they were both out of high school. As Mallory had just completed her sophomore year, that meant another two years. They decided that at this point in their lives, they wanted to enjoy their teen years free of the cares involved in raising an infant. They both declared, however, their desire for children, perhaps three or four. They also agreed on the need for discretion. While they appreciated the privileges granted them at both residences, they also agreed on the necessity of respecting the others who lived there. There were no longer small children living at the Martinez home, but they did visit from time to time, so special care had to be taken to avoid anything which would create problems for them. Small children were less likely at Brandon’s Boys, although young Chris Dowling did show up at some unexpected times and places. When engaged in sex or heavy petting, doors would be locked if possible, and always firmly closed. But they would also not create possibly embarrassing situations even for adults by their intimate actions. Private things would remain private. Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of their agreement was that they would be sexually exclusive, with an escape clause. Many kids in their teens liked to experiment with a variety of partners, and even engage in group sex to a limited extent, but Oliver and Mallory determined that they would engage in sex only with each other. The escape clause allowed sex with a third party or parties if both agreed before hand, and no more frequently than once every three months. As a matter of fact, since formally going together back at Thanksgiving time in 2014, neither has gone with anyone else.
In addition to these sexual understandings, the two teens discussed their future ambitions. Oliver would most likely pursue a career in law, although he has not ruled out the teaching profession. Mallory was even less definite, speaking casually of possible careers in teaching or nursing. They also both wanted to remain in Clifton to attend school and then raise their family. Pretty responsible decisions for two 16 year olds.