Family Life

The Happy Couple

Karen and Butterscotch
A birthday and anniversary gift





Today is our anniversary. Karen and I married after a whirlwind courtship of six months on the Thanksgiving Holiday in 1961. I was 23 and she had just turned 21 when we went down the aisle of the First Baptist Church in Pinckneyville, Illinois.

I was a school teacher at the Ina Grade School where I had the 5Th and 6Th Grades and taught all the subjects while coaching all the sports and driving the school bus. My salary was, as best I remember, about $3,000.00 but I received another $100.00 per month for driving the bus.

We were in love and wanted to marry so Thanksgiving seemed like a good time because I was off for vacation from Thursday through Sunday. We chose November 21 because it gave us a couple of extra days for a honeymoon.

Time flies when you are very busy and involved in life and that has been true for us. Our two children and three grand kids have provided lots of joy and lots of worry. That is life.

Marriage is not easy, that is for sure. Some marriage and family therapists say it is the most daunting of all mergers. Taking two people who are radically different as humans and asking them to live together in a mutually up building manner is a great but invigorating challenge.

After almost half a century, Karen and I usually mirror each other's thoughts and values. But is was always so. It has taken many misunderstandings and many discussions and puzzling conversations, fights and times of forgiveness. And, most importantly, God has been the glue of our relationship.

Take a look at this article in The Wall Street Journal to see how important marriage is to all people. I am very blessed after 46 Thanksgivings as a husband to have a wife of my youth.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010888