marriage

  I met my husband 50 years ago this month in Metropolis Il. ( yeah Superman town).I had just finished my sophomore year in high school.
  We got married  Oct. 21st . I was 15 and he was 20 ( both going to have birthdays before end of the year. He had a job in Bloomington, Il. cleaning gutters and washing windows. We had a 1 room apt. and had to share a bath.
    Then I found out I was pregnant ,oh the morning sickness. Not something I'd want to repeat. After a few months we moved back to Metropolis and lived with my parents for a few weeks.
     We got our own 3 room apt. and paid $25 a month rent. Gas was 16 cents a gallon when our 2nd son was born two years after the first . My husband worked for Martin Oil pumping gas, changing tires and oil.
     My parents moved to Marion , Il. and a few months later we followed with my husband working at Jake's tire store. We lived in a duplex next to my parents house.
    A few months later we moved to Waukegan ,Il. and my husband worked at candy factory and then a paint factory. It was cold up there and lonely. LOL. Then I found I was pregnant with our  third son. after almost a year we moved to St Louis, Mo where my son was born and we were there  2 years but city life is not for me so we moved back to Marion Il. and took care of several rental properties. Shortly after that move I was pregnant with our 4th son who was born in Marion, Il. Two months later Al was in a car wreck and lost his right thumb and had several stitches in face and head.
      We moved to Vienna, Il and later to Buncombe, Il where our two oldest attended school. Our 5th son was born while we lived there. We lived at the edge of Buncombe next to a small saw mill that would let us have slabs of wood which we used for heat. Al and I have used a two man cross cut saw to saw down trees  and chain them to car and drag to house where we cut them up with a buck saw.
     It was here our oldest son fell off the top of the outhouse  , where he watch the neighbors ride mini bikes and messed up his spine and broke his arm.
     We moved back to Vienna, Il and then to Cypress, Il. Al got a job at Skellys truck stop at first fueling semi's and later as cook in the resturant. When he got his vacation from there we went to Nebraska to see his dad's only  sibling and found he was dying of cancer so we stayed from June to Feb.
    By then I was pregnant again and due Jan 1st. so when we had no baby  by Feb 1st we loaded up and headed back to Illinois. We must have looked like  Beverly Hillbillies as we had a u Haul and then our kids were laying on their stomachs on top of blankets and stuff in back seat and floor board with our Siamese cat and American Eskimo dog.
 On Feb 10th our daughter was born. When she was a few months old we moved into my dad's farm house   on the property where we now live.
   When our oldest graduated high school I went and got my GED and we started college together. He took auto mechanics and I took Nursing. Shortly after that Al decided to take CNA classes and after I graduated we worked together a couple years and then he took a day shift and I did evening and night swing at same place.
   Up till that point things had gone fairly smooth in our marriage. But not having time together caused a riff and we had major problems over the next couple years but I stayed and finally he decided to try to work in out.
   It took several years before I felt I could trust him again but we have now had 50 years together and even with the ups and downs I'm glad we stuck together and if I had it to do over again I still do it.