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Edited on Sat Feb-12-05 12:14 PM by Padraig18
(Author's note: This article will appear in our local paper's 'Valentine Showcase' this coming Monday)
The romance between Earl and Dora Bumpus began on a narrow seat during a bumpy buggy ride in 1925. That romance blossomed into a love that has sustained the couple through all of life's bumps for 77 years. Bumpus and Dora Wangler met at revival service in a country church in rural Jefferson County, south of Mt. Vernon, when she was 16 and he was 17.
After the service, Dora's sister asked her to ride home with her, her boyfriend and his friend, Earl, in the horse-drawn buggy. Being typical teenagers, they thought it would be fun to see if they could all four sit on the buggy's narrow bench seat. "Well, the buggy seat wasn't wide enough, so I had to sit on Earl's lap", Dora recalls. That left Earl, a 'proper boy', in a dilemma: what should he do with his arms? "He was just sitting there with his hands hanging down, and I was afraid I was going to bounce out of the buggy, so I just took his hands and made him wrap his arms around me and hold me tight", Dora recalls, laughing like the young girl she was back then. "I knew what to do, but I just didn't want to think I was getting fresh", Earl replies, grinning.
Shortly after that ride, Earl went north to Coles County to work in the thriving broom-corn industry around Arcola. Friends helped him find a job that summer, and later that fall he found work as a farm hand with the Blume family, near Humboldt. The day began with breakfast at the Blume's about 5:00 a.m., and one day Mrs. Blume mentioned that she would sure like to employ a 'hired girl to help her with her work around the house'. Earl told her he knew just the girl. That night, he caught the southbound Illinois Central and got off the train at Ina, near Dora's home. Early the next morning Earl went to Dora's home and told her about the job, which she accepted with her father's permission. They caught the northbound train that afternoon and arrived back in Humboldt early that same evening.
For the next two years, Earl and Dora worked for the Blume family and, not surprisingly, grew closer to each other. In the fall of 1927, Mr. Blume announced his intention to build a small house for a 'permanent hired man and his wife'; it was just the 'nudge' that Earl needed, and he proposed to Dora in October. With the blessing of both families and the Blumes, Earl and Dora were married in the Blume's front room on November 26th, 1927, and moved into the new house that same day. "We thought we were big time", Dora recalls. "We had $175 in the bank, I had 3 dresses and Earl had 3 overalls and a suit". Smiling, Earl reminds Dora "We had a sofa, a bedstead, a kitchen table and four chairs, too".
Not long into their marriage, the Great Depression gripped the nation, and the rural Midwest was especially hard hit; Earl and Dora did not escape its effects. Earl had been earning $15 a week as a hand, and Dora had made $10, but the Blumes were forced to lay both off, although they did permit them to continue living in the small house rent free. It was 1931. Earl looked for work every day, eventually landing a job in J.O. Toland's seed store for $45 a month. He worked there through 1931, 1932 and 1933. Then, in the spring of 1934, Mr. Toland called Earl into the office and told him "We don't know if we can continue to operate much longer, with prices being what the are". Facing yet again the looming prospect of joblessness--- and now with two small children--- Earl told his boss that he would work for 'a dollar a day and four dozen chicks every spring', an offer Mr. Toland accepted.
"Dora got us through the Depression", Earl says, adding "No woman was ever a better manager or had more sense about money than my Dora. We always had a cow to milk, two hogs and the chickens, and Dora churned butter we sold for 40 cents a pound, which was big money back then." She also made all their clothes and took in sewing for cash or trade. "Not many men were as lucky as I was, to have such a hardworking, thrifty wife." Dora adds, "Don't let him make it sound like it was all my doing, because it wasn't; Earl worked many a week 7 days 12 hours a day, and then he'd come home and tend to the chores here, and watch and entertain the kids while I fixed supper or did the supper dishes. Earl's always been good to help me, too", she says as she pats his arm.
As the nation recovered, the couple rented 160 acres from their friends, the Blumes, and planted it in broom corn. "Broom corn sold for $50 a ton back then, and I got two crops that first year. The first one was one of the best I've ever seen, but the second crop got rained on. Still, the bank in Humboldt bought both, and we cleared almost $900 that year, after rent and expenses. That crop put us on our feet, and we bought a tractor for me and a gas-powered washing machine for Dora. The next day we put the down payment on another 190 acres and we never looked back", Earl says. Eventually, the couple would farm almost 1900 acres.
Plain common sense has served them well, Dora says. "We didn't run around at first.We stayed home and we worked hard and raised our kids. as soon as we could afford it, we bought more land and worked it until we paid it off. Buy what you need, not what you want, and pay ahead in cash whenever you can," she advised. "If you don't have the money to pay for it, do without if you possibly can. Always try to live within your means," Earl adds.
The couple credit their longevity to 'good, clean living'. "We neither one ever smoked, and although we'll have a beer every now and then, neither one of us was ever what you'd call drinkers", Earl notes. When asked about the secret of their 77 happy years together, Earls eye twinkles. "Lots of 'yes, ma'am' and 'no, ma'am' will get a lot farther down the road than fussing and arguing all the time will. Me and Dora just never did fuss about a lot of stuff that some folks seem to. Heck, most of it ain't that important, and sure ain't important enough to be unhappy with each other about all the time". Giving him a peck on the cheek, Dora chimes in with "What Earl don't tell you is that he's easy to please, and he made me feel like a queen every day, even when we was dead-busted broke. Some of you young fellers could learn something about how to make a woman happy from men like Earl. All 3 of our boys did, and they've been married for 57, 55 and 54 years."
Equality is important in a marriage, Dora counsels. "From May through October, Earl sort of run the show around here, because of the crops, but come November, he pretty much give me free rein until the next May. Me and that old man have a partnership, and we talk things over and listen to each other. You learn a lot more by listening than by talking, most times". Earl advises, "You guys should listen to your wives. You don't always have to agree with every little thing they say, but your fools not to listen. The Lord passed out brains to men and women in equal measures, and you're just kidding yourself if you think you're smarter than she is, just because you wear pants and she don't".
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