Groundhog Day - Happy Anniversary

 

Groundhogs day is a special day for us. About 38 years ago we married in the middle of an ice storm on Groundhogs Day. My father and mother had the ceremony in their living room. There was a “Saps Cake” that had said “Happy Birthday” on it. They scraped that off, bought some donuts and made coffee. Because of the ice storm dad had to go and get the minister in 4x4 truck. My next door neighbor and his wife and kids came over. Crystals mom and her 2 sisters were also there.

Crystal had a little white dress that she used and I had a pair of khaki pants and shirt and tie. We had gone 3 days prior and got the marriage license. I think, back then, it cost $22. The minister was a friend of the family for years and years. I considered him and his wife and children as family. My friend from next door was my best man and photographer. Apparently it had been a tough night for him because he took all the pictures with the lens cap on. So there are no pictures of our wedding. However, I think there was a total spent of about $50 when Crystal and I were married - not counting the rings we had previously purchased.

Now every time I hear someone talking about Groundhogs Day it reminds me that this was my wedding day. This is a handy thing for us absent minded professor types. Now this will not post till after groundhogs day so, me telling her Happy Anniversary will be way too late. So I have it marked on every memory device I have.   We are exciting folks like most homesteaders. We will probably go out to eat and maybe walk through a flea market somewhere. Then, settle down and watch our favorite Youtube channels and then off to bed. Life was not nearly this simple nor easy when we first started.

We got a loan of $600 from my parents. I had got a job teaching 8^th grade math at the local middle high school and had gotten my first paycheck $333.04. We rented a furnished single wide trailer for $258.50 per month. We took the $600 and went out and bought groceries including all spices etc because we didn’t have anything. Mom and dad gave us the camping dishes out of their camper so we had minimal plates, forks, spoons, knives, pots, pans, and an egg turner or two. We also got an electric skillet that had been Grannies. Mom and Crystals mom arranged household showers and we got towels, blankets, Tuperware and such. We were ready to set up housekeeping with our 13” black and white tv.

Now the folks who rented us the house were clean as a pen and they left the house very clean. But the home had some holes in the floor big enough the throw a cat through and that cold air just funneled through. It had total electric heat that came on and ran for 20 minutes before it warmed any. Since the rent took nearly one of our checks – 2 checks for a total per month of $666.08 ( no I am not the Beast) – we were terrified that the heat would cost us so much we couldn’t afford the bill. The previous folks had put in a flue and stove pipe and we went looking for a stove.

We found a little “Wonder Coal” coal and wood stove with a shaker grate at a little furniture store called Star Furniture. We installed the stove and started a fire with wood but it smoked something terrible. I got a ladder and got on top of the flue pipe and discovered that whoever had installed it had installed a spark screen solid down on the pipe and it was completely clogged. I pulled up half of the screen and the stove drew like it was supposed to. We absolutely had no credit when we purchased this stove. I had been working a sum total of a month and had my first paycheck but that is not a credit history. Crystal was unemployed at the time. But in our favor there was a local coal mine owner with my last name and his wife had the same name as my mom. They asked me my Moms name and I said Betty. The manager looked at the lady taking the information and said that’s Tex Eldridge’s boy give them credit. I didn’t correct them. So we got our little stove for $64 per month and nothing down.

Now, Crystals mom and dad owned a piece of property that was being mined by a coal company and one of the perks was they got house block coal for free. Crystal and I loaded up paper grocery bags and loaded them into our little brown Vega Estate station wagon. It was squatted with coal for our new coal stove. I had cut lots of limbs and put on our porch for kindling as well as lots of scrap wood from the home woodshop at Mom and Dads. We got a metal coffee can and put kerosene in it and would put 3 or 4 little blocks of coal in the kerosene and leave the lid on. When it came time to start a fire we would start the kindling and then place those kero soaked blocks of coal on the fire and it started extra quick.

Now that house was a tight house except for the holes in the floor. That stove would run you out of that house if you really had a roaring fire. The coal we had was very high btu coal and very low ash. It burned up nearly completely. Four or five fist size blocks would burn for 4 or 5 hours and keep that little house toasty. The bedrooms were rather cool for sleeping but that is what I always preferred. We had plenty of blankets and quilts like good little Appalachian people.

That first two weeks of marriage were regular young couple stuff. Then we got a snow storm and were snowed in for almost a month. Schools were called off but I was on salary for just so many days regardless of when I did them so I was still getting paid. There wasn’t all this electronic paydays like today it came in a check so you had to brave the snow in order to get your check and take it to the bank. School teachers back then were paid to teach 175 days out of the year. They took that salary and then divided that over 12 months so we were paid the same amount year round. I was making $12,200 per year my first year teaching after taxes $333.04 every two weeks. After we paid our electric bill, water bill, stove payment, rent, and auto insurance we were left with like $122 a month to buy gas for work and groceries. I remember the battery went out on my car and I didn’t know what I was going to do. Dad showed up the next day with a new battery.

Those were tough days but I don’t know that I can remember a happier time. We didn’t have anything but we had each other. Which is exactly what we have today each other. Our children are grown and doing their own thing. They have those experiences like we had. I hope they are just as happy. Now 38 years later I look at what we have and where we have come from and I am reminded that Life, like Homesteading, is a Marathon Not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride. Also, if you stay focused on your goals you will get there. Us, we’ll die trying if we don’t make it, because this is just the kind of people we are! 

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