"work" in the porn industry, hmmm?
Posted on 11/24/2005 5:56:02 PM PST by paulat
70 years later, 'secret lovers' still wed
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- When 19-year-old Ron Ramey fell in love with 14-year-old Marcella, doubters said it would never last - they were just too far apart in age. But the young couple didn't listen, spiriting from Nezperce to New Meadows to get married in secret. On Saturday, the Rameys will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
He's 90 and she's 85, both in good health. And the romance that began so long ago is far from losing its luster.
"I still love him so much," Marcella told The Idaho Statesman. "When we go to bed at night, we always hold hands. 'I love you' are the last words we say to each other."
Their wedding anniversary has fallen on Thanksgiving seven times since their wedding in 1935.
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"We're thankful to have had all these years together," Ron said. "We had no idea that it would last this long."
When they started dating, he worked at a meat market for a dollar a day, and she worked at a drug store for 10 cents an hour. One of Ron's duties was delivering ice, and Marcella would leave the icebox open - letting the precious ice melt - so he'd have to come by more often.
He proposed in a letter, and Marcella's response was simple.
"I wrote back and said, 'Yes, yes, yes,'" she said. "We had a friend drive us to New Meadows to get married so it wouldn't be in the paper in Nezperce. We didn't want anyone to know because I was so young. My folks were really put out when they found out, but in those days, people wanted kids to leave home because money was so scarce. It was one less mouth to feed."
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The newlyweds moved in with Ron's father and stepmother in Grangeville, where Ron worked as a dishwasher and part-time cook. Eventually, Marcella's aunt offered her a job at a bakery in Emmett, and the couple moved.
By then, they had their first child, a boy they named Marsh. The place where they lived in Emmett was so small that the kitchen, bed and shower were all in one room.
"I worked nights and slept days," Ron said. "When the baby cried, I could reach out and rock him without getting out of bed."
"He made $15 a week," Marcella added. "We never went anywhere because we couldn't afford it. The grocer let us charge $5 a week, and he'd throw in a box of candy. That was the only treat we ever got.
Water was drawn from a pump, which often froze in the winter. The weather would turn so cold that the nails on the inside of the house would be covered in frost, and without money for blankets the Rameys stuffed newspaper in the bed for insulation.
After three years in Emmett, they moved to Boise, with Marcella little more than a teenager.
"Mom made me clothes from hand-me-downs that had come from my aunt's," their daughter, Kay Gaskell, said. "And those were clothes they'd received from their cousins."
Though Gaskell often had to put cardboard in the soles of her shoes because of holes, she never felt poor, she said.
"We had the love of our parents, and they made a beautiful, loving home for us," she said.
For all but those first 14 years of her life, Marcella said, they've never been apart. Now they live in Boise, close to their children.
"People don't say 'Ron and Marcella.' They say 'Ron-Marcella' because we're always together," she said. "Sometimes I worry about which one of us will go first. I tell him he's not going anywhere without me."
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Information from: The Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com
Wishing that couple a happy anniversary. The ones who have been married for 70 years.
You make a great point. The expected age in 1900 was 49 something. By 2000 it was in the mid-upper 80s.
My grandpa at age 28 married my grandma at age 12. Grandma had all her eight kids by the time she was 23. They fled Lebanon and Syria from the Islamic radicals in 1907 (yea, the murdering zealots were eradicating Christians in Lebanon and Syria in 1907).
Hard to blame the kids getting married so young back then since they had such a short life to look forward to.
Absolutely, sweetie...sorry I didn't understamd.
I don't intend to "shoot" you. As I understood it, you disagree with the idea that a 14-year-old should be allowed to marry and work. While it may have been accepted in past generations, we live in a very different world today. However grown-up they think they are, the great majority of teenagers are not mature enough to take on such responsibilities.
Yet I don't get why you jump to a life of porn for these girls. I can only think it's because we hear of runaway girls supporting themselves that way.
Obviously you reacted to the idea of these kids having rights to work/marry as inane. As I said, I'm with you on that. We can all disagree but it's to our credit to do it without malice...in other words, civilly. Tough as it can be at times, that is a sign of our OWN maturity!
After many years, I'm still trying to learn to watch my mouth!
You know....the porno comment you made was totally unrelated to what we were discussing here (which is why I asked the "STUPID" question. I still find it irrelevant to the comment that a 14yr old should work and get married. (yes I did read it) I took the poster's comment as a tongue-in-cheek response. Obviously it hit a nerve with you....for whatever reason. Regardless.... I don't need "pictures drawn" ....your condescending attitude or hateful name-calling and cussing. So chill ....
They ran off and got married down south. When they returned to Michigan her parents had him arrested and he went to prison for 5 years. When he got out of prison the couple got right back together and continued their marriage for another 60 years untill he died.
This happened more than 65 years ago and he went to prison? 13/14 was a fairly typical legally marriageable age in those days. It was as young as 11 in some states. I guess the guy had the misfortune to be living in the wrong state.
The age at which people are able to legally marry or work has not coincided with the age of majority in the history of western civilzation. Why should it start to do so now?
2076 :D
No problem. I probably didn't make myself clear. I have been known to do that. :) Theirs is truly an inspiring story isn't it? Imagine the responsibilities they both had at such a young age. Especially the bride. Wow. Just goes to show you the staying power a lot of the young people had back then. God bless their marriage as it was truly made in heaven.
It is only in the last couple of generations that kids have been mollycoddled into being purt'near useless until 21 or so.
How long have you been married? Your marriage sounds like mine. Except we're at that middle point now, since my children are still baby through elementary school age and we just have a little house. Although we do have our first new car now. LOL!
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