This was in today's newspaper. Remember this when you think of your WAS. Some folks are made of stronger stuff than what we were married to.
This is one of the longest marriages known today.
SCOTTSBORO, AL. Eighty years ago today, Alonzo Sims paid Luther Miller $5 to drive him and Beulah Smith 50 miles to Tenn to get married. Miller's Model T Ford was the only car in the area in 1927. Sims had been working at the Miller's farm, plowing fields with a mule and picking cotton from sunrise until dark for $.50 per day.
(so, $5 was a BIG fee!)
At the end of one workday, when Sims was watering the mules, Beulah approached him and declared her love for him. What did Sims think? "Well, I thought she was purrdee". He was 15 and she was 12. They married two years later.
Married life was hard - the Depression hit in 1929. Despite the hard times they raised six children. Sims paid $300 for his first car - a used 1926 Ford and got his first tractor in 1940. In 1949 they got electricity and in 1960 indoor plumbing (remember this is rural Alabama; there are still some dirt roads here).
Now 97 and 94 and in a nursing home together, they both said while life was hard their M has been free of fussing. "We have been too busy to fight".
Grinning, Sims moved his wheelchair closer to his W and planted a big kiss on her cheek. "After all these years, I still enjoy being with her" he said.
That picture was on the front page of the newspaper. It made my day.
It is easy to walk away. Some are made of stronger stock.
