Then, after the war was over, the government sold all of those "court" houses to the general public.  They must have been built really good because you can still find them all over Northeast Oklahoma.  People bought them and moved them onto their properties.  And that was over 70 years ago.

Ken graduated from high school when I was in the third grade.  1947.  I didn't know him then.  But our parents were good friends, and my dad always loved to watch Ken play football.  (All-state, later playing for the Pensacola Naval team.)  So later, after the Korean War, Ken came back to Pryor and came by our house to visit my dad and mom.  

It was September of my senior year.  I was seventeen.  He was twenty five.  Never in a million years could I have imagined him being interested in me.  Or me being interested in him. (Neither could my parents.)  He was a grown man.    No one in my family thought anything about it.  But I guess Ken liked what he saw, and made up his mind.  Because somehow, he found out when my birthday was--when I would turn eighteen.   And in March, on my birthday, he called my dad and told him that he wanted to marry me and asked my dad if he would object to the age difference.  Ken had decided how he felt in September, and waited until March to let anyone know.  I was shocked.  Who would have guessed.  Not until he had my dad's approval.   I was still clueless at that point.

All because of the war.  And the government building a dam.  And Dupont building an ammunition plant.  And us moving to Pryor so my dad could get a job.  And my parents joining the Baptist church and becoming good friends with Ken's parents.  And all because my dad and Ken had been close back when Ken played football in high school.  Who can know the plans of God.  I know this...we had a marriage made in heaven.  Planned by God himself.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11