6/24/1960—6/24/2020
HAPPY 60TH ANNIVERSARY TO BARBARA PHELPS LOCKHART & ME!
Yes, we really did get married 60 years ago today at the ripe young age of 17! We’ve lived. We’ve experienced. We’ve got a lot to say about it all! (Well, at least I do.)
You know, every decade has some momentous happenings which were unique to us, but many also unique to 1.) our families; 2.) where we lived; 3.) the effect and the whole affect on the rest of our experiences. Perhaps in the following paragraphs I can relate something pertinent and poignant, even purposeful to other people and to their lives. Hope it’s not boring.
In the first two years, we lived in 6 different places. Some were partly furnished, some were fully furnished, some we paid for, some we didn’t (briefly with moms & dads.) When we went to the 7th place to live before we were 20, we felt independent. We sought the place out, we negotiated with the owner and agreed to terms. To save a little money, I put the tile down on the new bathroom floor—had never done anything like that and, probably haven’t done that good a job on things like that since! About a year later, we stepped up a notch in neighborhood quality with almost the same rent and felt better yet about ourselves.
During years 3 & 4, I worked two jobs. My day job was in the office of a factory—Hamilton Cosco, Columbus, IN. My evening job was 5-9pm at Dalton&Payne Mens’ Wear—an excellent specialty store the type of which has now mostly gone away. Those two jobs were, for me, a college education. If grades were given, I wouldn’t have rated high, but I would have graduated proudly anyway! Leaving both jobs at the same time, I took one job making the same money as two had been providing. Another advance move….
Barely 4 years into the first decade of marriage got us transferred to Danville, IL. There, I became manager of a jewelry store at 22, youngest they’d ever had in the 10 store chain. In the second year we bought our first house, another new adventure. We did it with no money down: the older man who owned the house put $400 cash in the bank as if he had gotten it from me, priced the house at $12,400, I financed by FHA with 3% down—his own money—and got a $12,000 mortgage. Think about it: mortgage, interest, and insurance on the purchased home was a 25% less payment than the former rent only had been. Thanks to Bill Hunt, our realtor, we saw how the “game was played!”
After having trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior shortly after moving to Danville, we became members of an American Baptist Church. The year I turned 25 (1967) we had two boys in school and the church asked me to teach a SS class for “Under 30 Married” (you probably know those classifications, right?) A 33 year old friend of mine saw me go into that class the first Sunday and said, “what’s Lockhart going into that class for?, he’s as old as I am!” I laughed and told him I was 25—he said, “That can’t be! We both have two kids in the same school years!” My point is though we had been married for 7 years, it was as much a strange thing to have been married that long at our young age then as it is now. Didn’t see that often, but that’s part of our first decade story.
More later, no doubt.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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