BARBARA JEAN EARLS BALDRIDGE KNIGHT: #15

I received a message on email this week that showed a picture of a 1936 Ford car. It was one of only four of those cars produced and is the only one that is still in good running condition. It was made of pure stainless steel and is as beautiful as it was the day that it was made. It is insured for $1.5 million dollars! It would be wonderful to get to actually see that car.

But, I have something more unique and by far more valuable and I fell in love with her at Herman Junction, Arkansas many, many, years ago. Barbara Jean Earls Baldridge Knight is in a class all by herself. There was only one of this model made. She, like the unusual car is still as beautiful as ever and in good running condition. I had a shirt made for her once that said on the front, "This old gray mare is still what she used to be!" And she certainly is.

Barbara was raised in a family with two brothers and three sisters. She also had a half sister from a previous marriage of her father. Barbara would tell me through the years that she felt that she had a biological father somewhere that she didn't know. When she was 41 years of age she learned that she did indeed have a biological father and learned where he was and visited him. She learned that she had two more brothers and two more sisters. She contacted them in 1998 and since then has become very close to them. So, she is probably the only person in the world that had four brothers and five sisters but biologically is an only child! I have kidded her that many years ago two good people made a mistake and I married it!

I said that I fell in love at Herman Junction, Arkansas. When we were youngsters we didn't have a 'youth minister' but the parents attended to that task. We had a bunch of young people our age at church and the parents were great at entertaining and teaching us. We had parties in those days at our homes and we played games of all kinds, but usually played a game or two where the guy and gal would go walking as we called it. We would get in a circle and put a coke bottle in the middle and a guy or gal would spin it. When it stopped spinning the guy would go walking with the gal that it was pointing at or or the gal would walk with the guy it was pointing at.

One night we played that game and I gave the bottle a spin and when it stopped it was pointing at 'Bob' as we all called her in those days. We took our walk down the road a little while and on the way back we stopped and I took her in my arms and kissed her in the middle of the old dirt road. That was the first time. A few days later she came home with my sister for Sunday dinner and we had a great time all afternoon. That evening as we crawled into Dad's 1939 Ford car to go to church, somehow my hand and hers touched and we held hands all the way to church. There has never been a moment since then that I have not loved her. We were married at Herman Junction in the 'big house' on July 24, 1958 and someday I will tell you about that wedding. We enjoyed many, many, wonderful times at Herman Junction and still go back there to visit my sister and remember the beginning of our 50 plus years of being in love.

So, I have something far more beautiful and valuable than an old 1936 stainless steel Ford. I think that I will just keep her! Now, you surely understand why I say that all is well at Herman Junction.