An Interview with Grandad Owens-Part 2

5. How did you meet Grandmom Owens?

I was good friends with Grandmom's brother, Leon.  We met in second grade and Mae was 2-3 years younger.  All growing up, I didn't pay much attention to Mae; I just played with Leon.  As we got older, Leon and I started playing trumpet duets and Mae played the piano for us.  We played these duets in churches, but it was not religious music at all.  It was polkas and fun music that we played for their special music.  When I became interested in Mae, it was very hard to ask her out because we had grown up together.  We never single dated.  We always dated in groups, 3-4 couples.  There was so much accountability-not like today where everyone single dates all the time.  We used to go to a root beer place a lot.  We would order one huge root beer and all put straws in it and it was gone quick!  We didn't think anything about it.  It was all fun.

6. Tell me about your proposal to Grandmom.

Mae was home from Eastman on a break and I was in the service, stationed in Waco.  Your Grandmom lived in Franksten.  I hitchhiked back to Franksten and asked her to marry me.  

7. When and where did you get married?

Mae and I married on July 14, 1945 at First Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas.  We have no pictures from our wedding because everything was rationed out due to the war and photographers were very scarce.  We went to New Orleans on our honeymoon.  We borrowed my dad's 1940 Ford and drove to Shreveport, Lousiana and stayed there the first night.  It cost $8.50 to stay in a hotel that night.  We then continued on to New Orleans the next day.  On the drive down, we used stamps for gasoline instead of money.  

Just as a side note, while I was visiting, I found one of my grandmother's old Bibles and in it, I found  letter she had written to my grandfather on Father's Day in 1988.  To capture the love they felt for each other, I thought I would share a quote by Helen Steiner Rice that was included in the letter.

"For love is unselfish, giving more than it takes, and no matter what happens love never forsakes. It's trustful and faithful and always believing, guileless and honest and never deceiving...Yes, love is beyond what man can define, for love is immortal and God's Gift is Divine!

My grandparents were married 54 years before my grandmother went to be with Jesus.

Part 3 coming soon!!