MJ and I are well on the road to 50 years of marriage. 48 today. When we married, I was rail-thin and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. I was grinning because I knew how much I did not know. There was expensive gas 48 years ago, as there is now. 1978 was the year I got hired at SIU…but at the time of our marriage, that had not happened yet. Mary Jane was a school teacher, and I was a janitor. Some said it would not last. I think it has a chance. I wanted to be a minister in those halcyon days.

Looking forward, from 20 years old, the road of life seems long. Looking back from 68, it has flown by. On Saturdays, we visited MJ’s Mom and Dad in DuQuoin. At times, we drove to Eldorado to visit Neva J and Earl. By the time our first Christmas came, I had a job at the University and thus money to purchase Neva J and Earl a lovely landscape picture from Downs and Son Furniture Store in Elkville. I remember feeling so proud to have a new car and a nice Christmas gift for them. We had purchased a four-room house…I thought it was a mansion. I told MJ that we were finally in the game.

Marriage is listening more than talking. Three and a half years later, Aaron made the scene, and then a year and a half later, Jonathon bounded in. We make quite a crew! When MJ is not in my sight…I look for her…literally when we are shopping…I lose her in the crowd. If she is not with me…I am not complete.

MJ, Aaron, and Jonathon are my life. For some time, Jennifer has come into our lives and made them richer. My life is exciting…interesting…mysterious and humongous for a young man born in Chicago and raised in Eldorado. There is something new around every corner.