55 Years Ago Today

 




“Daddy, who is that playing that steel guitar?”

“Oh, some fellow that works at the Ford garage I think, why?” inquired my daddy.

“Oh, just wondered”, I replied as I continued to watch the young man on our black and white television screen as he gracefully plucked that double neck steel. I wasn’t interested in Red Foley or whoever happened to be the star of the night. All I could see was that young man in the background with the black string tie and white jacket.

We didn’t have a television until I was 15.  And, then we only got two channels and the picture was black and white.  Daddy loved to watch Red Skelton and any wrestling matches that might be on.  And, he never missed “Ozark Jubilee” that was on every Saturday night on Channel 3 out of Springfield.  I didn’t care for it much so never really paid that much attention.  However, that Saturday night, I sat in the living room in our big chair, legs crossed and homework spread out on my lap and chair arms. But, my mind wasn’t on that; it was on that “double neck steel guitar playin’ guy” and I hardly took my eyes off him.

A few weeks later I was setting with my girlfriends at a basketball game. Right behind us sat a row of young men. One of my girlfriends seem to know them and as I turned around to see who was setting right behind me, low and behold, it was the “double necked steel guitar playin’ guy”.  I was embarrassed and my heart skipped a beat. During that evening, I found out his name and we talked quite a bit.  The friend setting next to him was his cousin. “Double neck steel guitar playin’ guy” didn’t play at bars. Instead he accompanied her on his steel guitar as she played the piano at church.  Somehow, we managed to find ourselves setting in that same location at later ballgames.  I had found out where he worked.  My Daddy was right; he was the parts man at the local Ford garage.  The route home that I walked every day after school changed; I found myself instead walking down the sidewalk toward the garage, then turning to walk up the hill toward my home. After a few days, the “double necked steel guitar playin’ guy” would just happen to be standing outside drinking pop and he would wave and occasionally holler at me.

It didn’t take me long to determine this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  My daddy was very strict with me and I wasn’t sixteen yet and this guitar playin’ guy was almost five years older. So, I knew better than to even ask if I could go out with him should he ask. So, he and I continued to see each other at ballgames or occasionally, he would drive on campus during the lunch hour and we would talk.  During that time, our campus was open so we were allowed to leave campus during lunch hour. My girlfriends and I would walk to the Dairy Queen close to the school or occasionally cross the road to Martha’s Diner for a hamburger.  “Double necked steel guitar playin’ guy” soon began meeting me there for lunch.

When I turned sixteen and was allowed to date, Daddy was still very strict.  When he found out I was interested in a young man five years my senior, he was not happy. I was allowed to see him only in a group.  If he came to church, I was allowed to set with him as long as we sat with other teenagers but he wasn’t allowed to take me home after church for the longest time. And, occasionally, I was allowed to accompany him and his parents to the church they attended on Saturday nights, which was their youth night. 

Fast forward a couple of years and a heartbreaking “time out” from the relationship and again that “double neck steel guitar playin’ guy” and I were setting on the Berryville square on a Saturday night in his car.

“Would you reach over and flip open the glove compartment and hand me that sack that’s in there?” he asked.

Opening the compartment, I pulled out a small sack,

“This one?” I asked him.

“Yes, that one. Now open it and look inside.” He said, smiling at me.

I carefully opened the little sack and took out a little white box. I opened it and there was the most beautiful set of diamond rings I had ever seen in my life! He took one of the rings from the box and put it on my finger and, of course, I cried.

And few months later on September 28^th , 1958, on a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon, we repeated our vows to each other at the “big red brick church down the street from the post office” in front of our attendants, our friends and family.

I can still feel the excitement of that day. I had worked at a dress shop in town after I graduated.  I bought a white prom dress for $24.95. My Mother had a seamstress make a lace jacket to go with it.  My three attendants were all named Linda and they wore pretty pink chiffon dresses. My groom and his attendants were attired in white jackets and black pants. And, my cousin, who was only fifteen at the time but had the voice of an angel sang three songs we had chosen; "Oh Promise Me", "I Love You Truly" and "The Lord's Prayer.

Today, we celebrate our 55^th wedding anniversary. He is the best husband a woman could ever want. He is the best father and grandfather there ever was.   And, although he no longer has that guitar, he will always be that “double neck steel guitar playin’ guy” that I fell in love with back in the spring of 1955.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."  Genesis 2:24 ESV