Marilyn and I got married, 45 years ago, on the 11th of November. Veterans Day. Much has happened in the world since them. We have had 9 Presidents in the White House.
36. Lyndon B. Johnson
37. Richard M. Nixon
38. Gerald R. Ford
39. James Carter
40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush
42. William J. Clinton
43. George W. Bush
44. Barack Obama
There was no Super Bowl in 1964, none till January of 1967. Have had 43 Super Bowl Champions since then.
I think it was in 1967 that we were visiting Marilyn's Grandmother, Emma, who lived out in the country, in a little town called Linnville, actually where Marilyn was born, and Emma had lived there all her life. She was close to 100, not sure exactly. She still cooked on an old wood stove and did all the housework. She actually lived in her old homestead with her 80 some year old son. Emma lived to be 102.
I remember sitting out on a porch talking with her son, Paul, who still worked and drove a road grader for the township. All the talk, everywhere, was about the up-coming Super Bowl. The Coursons were never known to be "talkers," so it was never easy getting a conversation started with any of them.
To get one started, I asked Paul, "Are you going to be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow, it's a really big thing, everyone is talking about it?"
He replied, "No, our TV set broke a few years ago and we just never got around to getting it fixed."
One more about Emma. Sometime, in her late 90's, her kids had tried to talk to her a bout "taking it more easy." They didn't think she should do all the cooking, cut firewood, have a vegetable garden and a flower garden, do the wash and all of the house cleaning. So she cut back.
One evening she got out of her chair, got dizzy (from not exercising and working) fell, and broke her hip. The ambulance took her to the local hospital. First time she was in a hospital, and no once could remember when she was sick last, or ever sick, or had seen a doctor.
Anyway, Marilyn and her sister got the call and headed for the hospital. You can imagine how many nieces, nephews, cousins and relatives were in the waiting room when they got there. It was full.
Emma asked for Marilyn and Joyce to come back to her room.
They went in, started chatting, and then started telling this dear soul who all was in the waiting room waiting to see her.
She pulled Marilyn down to her, and said, "I just don't see how I can entertain all of them right now."
I remember visiting her when she was in her 100's, and looking at her in awe, wanting to hear, from her, what it was like, 100 years before. She knew so much, and had lived through so much history, if only. 100 years back.
