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Lee's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this summer. We had a ball celebrating with them and the rest of the Brinson family. Their love story was recently featured in their local newspaper... thought I'd share it here.----
Burt and Eva Belle Brinson enjoy a moment in the backyard of their Grantsboro home. It is next door to the house where Burt was born in 1923. The Brinsons celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year.
(Charlie Hall/Sun Journal )
Keepers: High school sweethearts for life
December 27, 2006
CHARLIE HALL NEW BERN SUN JOURNAL STAFF
Growing up in hard times prepared couple to handle commitment
GRANTSBORO — If imitation is the finest form of flattery, following the lead of the Brinsons — Burt and Eva Belle — is not a bad idea for a successful life together.
But, it was not an easy road, although they might disagree.
They were born in the pre-Depression years, had their high school romance interrupted by war, then married and raised three children while following a solid work ethic with a commitment that family comes first.
Today, married for more than 60 years, they look back at what some of today’s youngsters might consider a hard life.
They see it differently — viewing what they call a hectic, modernized, complicated society as the tougher road.
“I wouldn’t want to go through what people do now,” said Eva Brinson, who is 81, and Burt’s bride of 60 1/2 years.
“You didn’t think about it the way they do today — get married today and next week they decide they want a divorce,” she said. “We just didn’t think about things like that. We are compatible. We had three children, and it was a struggle really. We had to sacrifice. It was assumed we were together for life.”
They firmly believe many failed couples don’t have a strong foundation and don’t take a relationship and commitment seriously enough.
“My gosh, the divorce rate is over 50 percent. Now, you figure it out. Do the math,” Burt Brinson said.
“We didn’t have all these fancy things,” she recalled. “When we first got married, I went outside and washed clothes out of tubs and the scrub boards, and put them in the wash pot to boil and clean them.
“But, we didn’t think anything about it. Everybody else was in the same boat.”
No time to argue
They were born in the 1920s, just in time to enjoy childhoods amid the 1930s Great Depression.
Each graduated from Alliance High School without benefit of having electricity or indoor toilets at home.
Their courtship started with Sunday evening drives in Burt’s 1934 Ford convertible, which was missing the top. It was interrupted in 1943 when he entered the Army and went to Europe for three years.
They exchanged some letters through 1946.
“And when he came back, we got married,” she said.
In the post-war year, it was full steam ahead raising a family and making ends meet.
“We were too busy,” said Eva. “We didn’t have time to argue and fuss.”
He went to work at Cherry Point, where he remained until his retirement in 1976. She stopped working in the New Bern railroad office to raise three children, returning to public life in 1961 as postmaster in Grantsboro, a job she held for five years. Then she joined her husband at Cherry Point and also retired in 1976.
Strong relationships permeate their family trees.
His father and mother, Henry and Emily Elizabeth, were married from 1912 until Henry’s death in 1949.
Eva’s parents, James and Eva Carmady, celebrated more than 50 years of marriage.
The Brinsons’ values — hard work and family first — were handed down to their children.
Although both had good jobs at Cherry Point, the family still had to be frugal with the idea of sending the children to college. All three offspring attained degrees and the two sons have doctorates.
“And when they graduated, they didn’t owe anybody a dime,” Eva said.
“And we didn’t either,” added Burt.
Solid foundation
A hard, early life on the farm set a solid foundation for both of them and their relationship, he said.
“Our children have told us many a times that if they had to grow up like we did, they couldn’t do it,” Burt said. “No indoor plumbing, no hot water, no running water, no lights. And, you might say, no roads.”
His parents told him N.C. 55 was paved from New Bern to Oriental in 1923, the year he was born, and N.C. 306 from Grantsboro to Arapahoe got a blacktop in 1934.
Along with no indoor utilities, both were raised without the luxury of a family automobile.
“People could not live today like we grew up,” she said. “We were poor, but we didn’t know it.”
Burt chimed in, “Everybody was poor, but we lived just as good as anybody else. We didn’t have any money, but we had food and clothes, and we stayed warm and we stayed dry.”
There was another ingredient, according to Eva.
“We had love.”
http://www.newbernsunjournal.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=31804&Section=Local
Guess what greeted Lee this morning as he took Gus for his walk... snow! You'd think it was a blizzard because schools are closed, businesses are delaying their openings, and every tv network has preempted national news for round-the-clock "storm" coverage. All for about 1" of the white stuff.
Luckily, it doesn't look like it will impact Lee's travel this afternoon to Aspen for the X Games. It's supposed to warm up quickly and there's no forecast for more precipitation. This is good news for Amelia and me, as we are to fly West tomorrow. We do NOT want a double-take on our miserable Christmas travel (that post to come later)!
I thought we were special here in Chapel Hill, until I checked the LA news this morning... it snowed in Malibu yesterday! Crazy!!!! Fist time since 1962. Maybe Al Gore is right...
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