~as told to Annette Hertzler on October 31, 2013~
I think it will be easiest to write their account in interview form. Thus, when a question is asked, it will be understood that I am the one asking a question, and their answer will follow.
First, Mom and I sat down together. I asked her some questions.
"When did you meet Dad?"
'I was standing at the front door of our family home. My parent's had invited his father and Martha(his sister) and Truman over to our house for dinner which was the noon meal.'
'I was at the front door with my father to welcome them. I had never bothered looking at any guys before but I thought, "He's a pretty handsome guy!"'
'When it was time for them to go, I went to the boy's bedroom and watched him leave and it was another favorable impression. He was 18 1/2 years old. I was 15.'
'I didn't pay much attention to him until I was 16. I went to Laurelville one summer with several siblings and he was out there and we paid attention to each other there. He got me into some scary places. He convinced me to climb some big rocks with him. I had on a dress. It wasn't like he would have known the rocks real well. He didn't. We had good fun.'
Later, I asked Dad, "When did you first notice Mom?"
He said, "She was one of Martha's friends. I noticed that she was pretty and nice. I had thought red hair wasn't pretty until I noticed her. We went to her place for Sunday dinner. Mom opened the door for me and I thought she was quite congenial and very nice. Later we went to Laurelville for a Young People's Institute. We went on hikes together and went through rocks. I gave her my hand and helped her up through the rocks."
(It was fun to hear these stories from both of their perspectives. Dad did not know that she had already told me her side of the story.)
Dad continued, "One Sunday afternoon, I asked her for a date. "I'll try," she answered."
Ginny said that she asked her mother for permission and her mother said that she could have this one date but no more until she graduated from high school. They went to a musical program.
Their church had an active young people's group. They saw each other at youth activities every other Friday night and on one Sunday a month, the youth evangelized by going to the town of Reading to distribute 'The Way' into people's door boxes.
On Christmas eve, the young people would Christmas carol until milking time the next morning. Ginny's dad furnished the truck. The group of young people would stand on the back facing the four foot sides of the truck and carol through the town. At 1:00 in the morning, they would stop and have refreshments-hot dogs, cookies, hot chocolate, and coffee-and then would return to the truck to carol some more. They also walked through Morgantown and Elverson and stopped at different people's homes. Dad remembers them stopping at his home when he was a small boy. They would come to sing for his grandma. One of the children would wake up to the singing and they would go around and wake up the others in the house.
One Christmas morning, when Truman was about ten years old, the family car wouldn't start. They-his father, his brother, and himself-walked to church and Jacob E. Kurtz insisted on taking them home even though his station wagon was already full.
His daughter, Fanny, was in the car. Truman asked her, "Do you like to hear the carolers?"
"I am one," she replied.
"I never forgot that," said Dad.
Mom continued, "We officially started dating after I graduated from LMS in June of 1951. Mama left us have a few dates before I graduated. During my last semester of high school, he was in his second semester at EMC. We were writing. I remember he gave me such a beautiful fancy blouse for Valentine's. I wore if for special occasions. It had lace around the front and buttons down the back. It was a beautiful dark green. Cape dresses were in vogue in the Mennonite Church. I guess he didn't think that a cape dress was necessary."
"That summer, Dan and Mary got married. (Dan is Truman's older brother.) Mama left Truman and I drive out to Ohio by ourselves. The day we came back, we both went to Snowhill, Md. to teach Bible School for two weeks. We taught the fourth grade. Truman and I would go out for walks. I got bit by mosquitoes but they didn't bother him."
Dad went back to EMC that fall. They wrote more letters.
"In September of '51, my brother, Ernest, died," said Mom. "Dad came home for that funeral. He was unsure of where he belonged at the funeral but he wanted to be there for me.
I had mumps in August of that year. Truman stopped in to see me before he left for EMC."
Miriam, Mom's older sister, was dating Alan at that time. Mom wished that she could go out on dates.
She chummed around with her cousins while she waited for her chance to date.
It was during the next summer of 1952 that Truman and Ginny became engaged. They didn't tell anyone. Mom was ready to settle down but Dad decided he wanted to serve in PAX-(Peace)-after WW11 ended in 1945. (He would serve from July of '53-August of '55, rebuilding houses for refugees in Germany.)
Ginny went up to NYC to the pier to watch the PAX boys leave by ship. His father, his Uncle Milford, Chris Kurtz, and others from their church were there to see the 'Good Ship Edom' depart. They didn't know if they would ever see those boys again.
Truman and the other young men had one week of orientation training at Grantham Brethren in Christ College.(Messiah College) He and Ginny wrote to each other almost every week.
After he came back, they found out that two other couples were also engaged before the fellows left.
Ginny went to EMC during his second year away. She took a year of Home Economics.
That second year he began to call her on the phone. There was a six hour difference and she spent some time hanging around the phone. Life moved a bit faster during that second year.
At one point Ginny did not hear from Truman for two to three weeks and she was worried. She found out later that he had a car accident. He suffered with a concussion and had to lay still. They put him in a Children's Home to get the nursing care he needed. An American girl would bring him his meals. She was dating one of the other PAX guys. After feeling better he was able to write. Martha, his sister, did not know what had happened either.
There were those he worked with who wanted him to stay longer in Germany to teach Bible School. Someone told him he needed to come home, saying, "You're engaged."
Mom said, "If he had stayed on, that might have put me over the edge."
He came home in August and they were married on Nov. 26, 1955.
Phil was born on September 19, 1956.
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Back to the summer of 1952.
Truman says that his heart would start to beat faster whenever he got closer to Ginny's home.
They enjoyed going for walks out the Mast Farm Lane.
There was a wheat field right beside the lane.
Ginny's daddy liked to play tricks.
One evening, on their way back from their walk, a ghost-like creature jumped out of the wheat field.
Truman said loudly, "I'm gonna throw a stone at the thing!" ("I didn't," he assured me.)
Truman ran over and grabbed a white sheet from off the trickster.
There was Ginny's Daddy in his undershorts.
He ran to the house while they all laughed heartily.
Miriam and Alan were also dating. Whichever couple got home first got the rights to the living room. The others had to stay in the kitchen. One evening, Ginny served Truman tomato juice. He hadn't liked tomato juice before but he liked it ever after. Maybe because it was made with love.
Ginny shared about a very special time.
"One Sunday evening we went to a meeting at Zion. Truman was planning to propose to me that evening but young people came over to our home. The next evening he wanted to walk up the field lane where there was a nice cherry tree. We sat there talking for awhile and then Truman said, "Will you marry me?" This is when we shared our first kiss." ( Prior to this, they would hold up their hands to their faces and kiss through their hands.)
Ginny said that soon after she said 'Yes', there was a little rain shower. "That was a shower of blessing."
Mom said, "The day after we were engaged, Miriam said, "What's wrong with you? Did you get engaged or something?" I don't remember what I said to her."(They were keeping their engagement a secret.)
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Skip forward to their wedding on November 26th, 1955.
After the ceremony at Conestoga Church and the reception at Morgantown Fire Hall,
they came back to Ginny's parent's home. Truman forgot his wallet in the bedroom.
They spent the evening at the Morgantown Hotel-Room #19. They left there on Sunday morning while everyone was in church and headed for West Virginia. This is how they lost their would-be followers.
John Shenk, a PAX pastor, had a cabin in West Virginia which he said they could use. It was on Dove Holly Road.
They got there on Sunday.
On Monday evening, Pop Shenk came around 9:00.
He had received a call either from Truman's father or Kathryn Mast.
Pop Shenk said, "Your father is in the hospital."
Truman's father, Melvin Levi, had a stomach ulcer.
It had ruptured, calling for emergency surgery.
Truman and Ginny packed up and left by 10:00 the same evening.
The temperature had dropped to zero and they couldn't start the car.
Earlier they had visited the neighbors and now they asked these kind folks to give their car a push.
They pushed it with another vehicle for several miles until they got to the top of a mountain.
They put it in gear and started down the other side of the mountain in second gear.
Before they got to the bottom, it started.
They arrived at Ephrata Hospital in the dark of morning and talked with Truman's father.
He was standing and the surgery had already been performed.
Dave Bitler and another neighbor had done the morning milking.
Truman milked the cows in the evening and could hardly stay awake.
His dad recovered and was able to do regular chores.
He passed away December 10, 1964. He was 70 years old.
Truman worked for him for nine years.
Truman and Ginny lived in one bedroom in the big farm house with Truman's family while they fixed the little house next door. They ate their meals with the family. One month later, they moved next door.
Phil was born in September of '56 and Tom was born in May of '58.
Martha, Truman's sister, was teaching at Conestoga Christian School.
After Tom was born, Martha encouraged the school to hire Ginny to teach Home Economics.
Ginny taught one day a week while Kathryn Mast watched the boys.
Omar Kurtz was the principal of the school which consisted of eight grades at this time.
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Well, there you have it.
A bit dis-jointed because my notes were dis-jointed since I interviewed them separately at first
and then together.
I will hit 'print' in order to save it.
Then I will call them and get them to help me edit it.
What a lovely story.
What a lovely couple.
What a lovely legacy.
Thank you Mom and Dad.
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