Courtesy of yourhoustonnews.com
In a town of about 5,000, practically everybody knew everybody.
Or at least of them.
Loyd Jack can't place the exact moment he knew he had found his soul mate and neither he nor his wife can recall the one thing or event that cemented their union.
That's because for seventy years, Loyd and Maxine Jack of Deer Park have been too busy living to let the little things distract them.
"He is 27 days older than me and we've known each other since we were seven," said Maxine.
They were part of the graduating class of 1942 in their hometown of Mineola, Texas. They were both 16 when they began dating in November 1941 just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Married the following July 27, both joined the war effort within the year: with Loyd stationed in the Navy in Alaska for three years while Maxine worked at a gun plant in Houston, where they had moved when Loyd got a job at the Houston ship yard.
"We didn't see each other for three years," said Maxine.
But they wrote each other everyday.
Letters flooding back and forth throughout the war, Loyd and Maxine were building a foundation of mutual commitment and communication, even as they were thousands of miles apart.
On Friday, Loyd and Maxine will celebrate that 70-year devotion with friends and family.
But to hear them talk, 70 years went by like a flash.
They were part of what Tom Brokaw coined "the greatest generation", and when they try to connect the dots or the details of the last seven decades, things, years, favorite music…. all start to blend in together. The clearest memories are rooted in shared experiences and are like a journey through post-World War II American life.
There was Swing and Sway with the Sammy Kaye Band, the 1948 black Dodge they bought for about $2,300. They owned the first television on the block when they lived on Broadway and every Friday night neighbors would crowd in the front living room and on the floor to watch wrestling. There was Bob Hope, "I Love Lucy", sports. In 1958, they moved into the house in Deer Park, where Loyd would work and retire from the petrochemical industry, and seven decades later, they still live there. The front room still has the same couch, lamps and side tables, as immaculate as they were in 1958.
Times changed so gradually, said Maxine, that they hardly noticed: from a small black and white TV to a larger color console TV to a flat screen. After Loyd retired, the two traveled and have visited every state in the U.S. except North Dakota. They don't look back often, but when they do, even they marvel at the 70-year mark.
"We feel very blessed to have each other," he said. "I guess we're very lucky we have that."
Loyd and Maxine don't have any theories or complex answers about how to make a marriage work, and they don't analyze there relationship. But they know each other inside and out. That, said Maxine, comes from sharing things, talking to each other and enjoying life together. And not letting the little things get in the way.
"You have to talk, listen to each other," she said.
Through the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and now as they've expanded, through their only child, David, to two grandchildren and two great-grand children, they are as close as they were decades ago when their letters flooded back and forth from Alaska to Houston.
Seven years ago, Loyd was put on dialysis and has since dealt with health issues. The traveling has ended, but the connection is unbreakable, said Loyd.
"There's a bond there that's hard to explain," he said.
Courtesy of yourhoustonnews.com
