Meyers still holding hands after 70 years

Elvis and Maxine Meyer sit in their side-by-side recliner chairs every night and watch television. ”And we still hold hands sitting there,” Maxine said, grinning.  
“A lot of times, when we pass, we steal a kiss in passing,” Elvis said, chuckling.
Both seem active, in comparably good health and very happy, contented and cozy in their pleasant little rural home, which is located on his family’s old home place. Their pets are their treasured companions.    
They were married on Sept. 7, 1940, and this Sunday, they will celebrate their 70th  anniversary with friends and relatives with an open house at Temple Baptist Church.
In the Beginning
  It began as a simple childhood friendship and grew to be childhood sweethearts. Elvis Meyer and Maxine Thomas met when they were 10 years old.
He lived in Van Burensburg and she lived in Vera, and they didn’t attend school together.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” Elvis said.  “After we met the first time, I always liked her. Then, later on, we met again, and started dating and got married.
“We married young, but it worked – 70 years of it – and I’d do it again,” he said.
“I would, too,” Maxine said, “but would do things a little bit different. I would go back to school and finish the last year.”
“I graduated from Van Burensburg Grade School,“ Elvis said. “Floyd Roe drove a bus from Van Burensburg, then to Greenville. But we had to pay to ride the bus, plus we had to pay Bond County for tuition. So for poor folks, that was just too much. I thought it would be better for my sister, Evelyn, to get an education, and she did.”
“And she was really a smart girl,” Maxine added. "She was three years younger, and when he went to grade school and she couldn’t go, she was learning all the things he was learning.”
Elvis did go to school in Greenville for one semester, but “I was more of a doer,” Elvis said.
“I needed to get out. I knew I could always make money. I never made a whole lot, but I made money.
“Back in those days, I sawed wood with a wood saw to go on a date, and too, I always helped set (put food on) the table when I was at home. Working hard has always been a part of my life,” he said.
 “This place here belonged to Granddad, and about that time, he had a saw mill. That was very hard work. For a young man, 16 years old, I could work as hard as any man on the job,” Elvis said.
The dates were inexpensive, as they would just ride around the countryside. “For example, if we were in Greenville, we would ride up the Red Ball trail, to Coffeen, then come on home,” Elvis said.
The Entourage to the Wedding
Both were just 17 when they asked their parents’ permission to get married and (though reluctantly given), received it.
Maxine told of their wedding.
“We were both so young, and everybody was set, my parents, his parents. But my parents liked Elvis, and his parents didn’t say too much. So we went to St. Charles, Mo., and my mother went along. We took our preacher with us, our witnesses with us and my mother, and got married. There’s been some tough times, but we made it.
“Back then, we were not too far past the Depression, and things were hard back then, all the way through, even into the ’40s. Then World War II came along and things got a little bit better, because, like the shoe factory , they got contracts to make shoes for the soldiers. But financially, it hasn’t always been easy.”
The young married couple lived with Elvis’ grandparents, Wallace and Bessie Whitten, for more than a year, to save up for a house and furniture.
They made their first home in Vandalia, where Elvis drove a truck for Bert Ray, then the Vandalia school bus. Maxine went to work at the shoe factory. When Elvis went to work for Greyhound Bus lines, they moved to Collinsville in 1951, where Maxine worked for the telephone company as well as a savings and loan company.
Baby Sharon
“In 1962, we got a baby,” Maxine said. Elvis and Maxine had wanted to adopt a baby, so when friends in Texas learned of a pregnant mother of several children who felt she could not care for another child.  Knowing of the Meyers’ wish for a baby, they made arrangements to legally adopt the new baby. Maxine flew out to get her when she was born, and they named their new little baby girl Sharon.
They lived in Collinsville for more than 30 years, as Sharon grew up, also sharing their home with a foster son, Joe.
Early Training
Elvis’ dad, Clyde, ran a garage in Vans Burensburg. “He could take a Model T Ford all apart, put it back together again and it would run like a charm,” Elvis said.
He credits his dad’s ability and the experience with his own ability to work with motors. “I didn’t own any tools except maybe a pair of pliers and a screwdriver until after we were married, then I started buying some good tools.
“One year, a lot of years ago, we bought a Model-T Ford that needed an overhaul, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I think we bought that from George Stombaugh’s dad, in the 1940s.”
Making A Living
Although his future did not rely on his talent in working with repairing motors, Elvis’ years in the work force involved motors and literally “rolled along” until his retirement.
He began working for Bert Ray, hauling coal.
“Of course, back then, I had to have a chauffeur’s license. Then from there, I drove the school bus for four years for Vandalia, and I also had to have a permit to put up over the windshield and take first aid training. From there, I went to drive for Greyhound for eight years.”
Elvis then drove a semi-truck for 13 years, then joined Preston Trucking, from which he retired after driving 17 years.
“But my start was with Bert Ray. He was a grand person,” he said. ”He knew about trucks. He told me one time that he knew from the size of a warning sign from down the road what it was. I memorized that and that helped me all the years I drove.
In all the years, Elvis never was laid off, never out of a job and never had to draw unemployment compensation.
“Speedbumps” Along the Way
Elvis was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 66, after experiencing problems breathing. His left lung was removed in February 1989, and he retired in June, 1989 after 30 years in the Teamsters Union.  “But, later on, he decided he wanted to work again, because he felt better,” Maxine said, smiling.  
Commenting on Maxine’s smile, he said, “But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some rough times, because we did. That’s just the way it is, but she didn’t leave me.”
Maxine also had a bout with cancer about two years ago and underwent surgery.
Bountiful Blessings, Too
Their marriage grew stronger through their faith and activities in church work. While in Collinsville, Maxine sang in the choir, and Elvis served as deacon and drove the church bus.
Elvis had inherited his grandparents’ 80-acre farm and their hearts went back to the old homestead at “The Burg” after retirement. Although they live comfortably in a new home, the old farmhouse still stands near the road, almost obscured by foliage growth.
Elvis has never had the heart to tear the old home down, recalling many precious memories in his grandparents’ home.
“When I was a little kid, about 5 years old, we didn’t have electricity; we just had oil lamps. In the wintertime, Grandma would put a round rock in the oven and heat it.
“Then when I went to bed, she would wrap a towel around that rock and put it down to keep my feet warm and I would go right off to sleep,” Elvis said.
Also, he said, “Granddad and Grandma, every morning, just as regular as morning came, Granddad would ask the blessing for breakfast, then after breakfast, we would go in the living room, sit down  and Granddad would open up the Bible and read the daily Bible reading, and then we would have prayer.
“People don’t do that much any more. But they would pray for me, by my name. That made such an impact on my life, that someone would care that much for me that they would pray for me, by my name, in my presence. That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”  
He also recalled, when he was 6 or 7 years old, his grandfather telling him to “go out and ride any one of the horses you want to, but stay in the pasture; don’t get out in the road.”
“They were all work horses and gentle, but to a 6- or 7-year-old boy, that was a big deal,” he said. “From all the things that took place there, I guess I’m the only one left that remembers them.”
They have raised horses, goats, llamas, dogs, cats and ducks. When Sharon moved to Texas, she took the horses and some of the “critters” with her to live at her new ranch.
Today – Contentment, Peace
 “I like the setting,” Elvis said. “From my window, I can see the picnic table we’ve had for years and years, and the birdfeeders we put at each end of it.” he said. They like to watch the bluebirds, woodpeckers, etc.
Maxine likes antiques and they spend many nights at the local auction barn with their friends, Martha and Randy Eller.
They enjoy their dogs, “Cassie,” “Coco” and “Lucky”; their cats, “Dottie” and “Tiki, and the kittens in the barn; a llama; their friend’s horse; the birds… and especially, each other. Their daughter, Sharon, is coming home to host the Open House at Temple Church from 2-4 p.m. on Sept. 12.
“God has been so good,” Maxine said. “We forget God wants the best for us,” Elvis said. “We need to trust the Lord – How can we lose?”
That faith seems to have blessed their lives and marriage for the past 70 years – still sweethearts, holding hands.