John & Shirley Slusser
18 Feb 1959 - 18Feb 2009

  Who would have thought that we could make it to 50 years ?  As you can see, we were pretty green behind the ears when that photo was snapped at the Martinsville High School  Valentine's Day Dance on the 12th of February.  It was the day after I returned home from basic training as a fresh Airman Third Class ready to take on the world.  I guess it must have been true love since Shirley was still my girl after the long absence of a whole three months!  Who knows what we were thinking when we ran off and got married on the following Wednesday, the 18th of February 1959?  How appropriate, our 50th anniversary was on Wednesday too.

      In those days, it was required that you have a blood test proving you didn't have any diseases of you know what kind before you could get a marriage license.  So we went all the way to (a whole 25 miles) for the test, figuring we would be far enough away that rumor would not reveal our intensions.  I guess we did that on Monday and we must have had the results by the following Wednesday.

    With the assistance of Shirley's sister Sharon, we managed to sneak Shirley's suitcase out of the house while she entertained their grandmother so she wouldn't hear anything.  At least I didn't have to put a ladder to the upstairs window and have her climb down.  We met up with Eddie  Simpson and Patty Tipsword and headed to Oklahoma in Eddie's  1947 Chevy Fleetmaster because we heard you could get married at 16.  Illinois had a law that men couldn't marry without parental permission until 21, however, women could marry at 18 and buy booze too.  How fair was that?  Come to think of it, I use to get Sharon to buy beer on occasion so I guess we got around that law, heh, heh !

  Man!  Oklahoma was a long ways off !  Eddie or Pat had also heard that you could get married in Shawneetown, Illinois,  south of us a hundred fifty or so miles. Since that was several hundred miles closer than Oklahoma, we decided to try there first. 

   Shawneetown  was a sleepy little town near the Ohio river on the very southeastern tip of Illinois.  We arrived there about 10 AM and found the courthouse in order to get our license. The lady behind the counter asked for ID and the only one of us of age was Patty who had turned 18.  Eddie and I were 18 and Shirley was the ripe old age of 15...can you believe that,  I'd go to jail today !  We showed our Social Security cards and she issued each couple a license.  Wow !  That was easy.  Now, all we needed was a preacher.

    I knocked on the door of the local Methodist  church parsonage and a little Casper

Milquetoast of aguy with an apron came to the door and I said we wanted to get married.  OK, says he and told us to wait in the church next door.  Here's the difference between then and today.  We all changed into our "good" clothes, slacks, dress shirt & shoes, dresses, skirts heels, etc., and were presentable for marriage even though it was only us and the preacher.  What a different era that was !

  So, we stood up for each other and soon the ceremony was completed. Then what did we do?  We headed back home to Casey.  Before I took Shirley home, yes, I took her home and Eddie took Patty home too.... we went to Bertrams, the local soda fountain & news stand hangout, and had hamburgers.  Because this was our wedding supper, we considered finding a retro-hamburger joint for our 50th Anniversary party but decided otherwise. Steak is much better. 

  The next day the word got out and we had to "fess up" that we were married.  I was a bit apprehensive the next time I went into Shirley's house, wondering just how much trouble I was in with Shirley's dad Robert.  Shirley showed the marriage certificate to her mom, ILiff, and after she said "Well, you made your bed, now you've got to lay in it.  Go show this to your dad !"  He just looked at the certificate and smiled.  Whew !  Bob was a good guy and treated me like a son !  My mom was skeptical at first as you will read below, however, it didn't take long for Shirley to be family as it was with me and the Malcom clan.  I say clan because of Shirley's brother and two sisters plus the two of us had a total of eighteen kids.  Now, I have no idea how many great & greats greats there are on the Malcom side. So for me it was instant family.  

   It was very soon after that I caught the train to Denver for my first assignment at Lowry Air Force Base.  Shirley stayed behind to finish the school year.  When I graduated from the first phase of training, I returned to get Shirley and we headed to Colorado in my (our) 1947 Chrysler loaded to the hilt and that began our 50 year adventure.  It's been rough riding at times, but in the end it was worth the effort.  It's true.  Successful marriage requires a great deal of work.

 

   Soon after we were married, Mom was showing Shirley some of the old 
glassware on the dining room buffet and included was a gold sugar and cream set that they had given my grandparents, Harley & Laura Slusser in 1949 on their 50th Anniversary.  Mom told Shirley that when we had our 50th, she could have that sugar and cream set.  Shirley wasn't sure whether she was being a bit sarcastic or not, however, last fall when Shirley was at the farm in Illinois, she picked them up and brought them to Tucson.  She told Mom she wasn't waiting until the next trip because she was pretty sure the marriage was going to last until February.

   It turned out, Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th in 1985.  I think that it's fairly uncommon for three generations in a row to have celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. 

  We chose to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary at the restaurant on River Road near Campbell.  We had 31 guests including ourselves.  Missing was Shirley's sister Avis who had become a bit ill and had to spend a couple days in the hospital. She is much better now and we had a good visit while she was here.

Family Attending:

Mildred Slusser (Mom)

Avis Sutton - Dennison, IL

Richard Malcom - Decatur, IL

Harold & Sharon Smith - Martinsville, IL

John Slusser Jr. - Casey, IL

Susan Bedore - Linch, WY

Sarah Knott 

James Garrison

Jesse Garrison