1.0The Sourcehttps://the-source.netrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="ltATJ1E8Os"><a href="https://the-source.net/its-been-a-good-ride/">“It’s been a good ride”</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://the-source.net/its-been-a-good-ride/embed/#?secret=ltATJ1E8Os" width="600" height="338" title="““It’s been a good ride”” — The Source" data-secret="ltATJ1E8Os" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(c,l){"use strict";var e=!1,o=!1;if(l.querySelector)if(c.addEventListener)e=!0;if(c.wp=c.wp||{},c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage);else if(c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if(!t);else if(!(t.secret||t.message||t.value));else if(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret));else{for(var r,s,a,i=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),n=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=0;o<n.length;o++)n[o].style.display="none";for(o=0;o<i.length;o++)if(r=i[o],e.source!==r.contentWindow);else{if(r.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message){if(1e3<(s=parseInt(t.value,10)))s=1e3;else if(~~s<200)s=200;r.height=s}if("link"===t.message)if(s=l.createElement("a"),a=l.createElement("a"),s.href=r.getAttribute("src"),a.href=t.value,a.host===s.host)if(l.activeElement===r)c.top.location.href=t.value}}},e)c.addEventListener("message",c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",t,!1),c.addEventListener("load",t,!1);function t(){if(o);else{o=!0;for(var e,t,r,s=-1!==navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10"),a=!!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident.*rv:11\./),i=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),n=0;n<i.length;n++){if(!(r=(t=i[n]).getAttribute("data-secret")))r=Math.random().toString(36).substr(2,10),t.src+="#?secret="+r,t.setAttribute("data-secret",r);if(s||a)(e=t.cloneNode(!0)).removeAttribute("security"),t.parentNode.replaceChild(e,t);t.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:r},"*")}}}}(window,document); </script> http://the-source.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fred-and-Betty-Still-July-2021.jpg360480Fred and Betty Still celebrate 65 years of wedded bliss by Lynn Colburn Rocking back and forth on the front porch of his house, Fred Still, 91, smiles a dimpled grin and says, “Married to the same woman for 65 years, I don’t know how that happened. It’s been great.” His wife, Betty, 85, is sitting next to him, and with a glimmer in her eye, says, “I think he looks pretty fantastic, don’t you.” The couple has been married 65 years and it hasn’t always been easy. In fact, at times it has been downright heartbreaking, but you would never know it when you see them look into each other’s eyes. Betty Mosley Still’s mother died when she was just four days old. Her father was 35 years old and had eight children to take care of on his own. Betty feels blessed that she was raised by her father’s sister and husband as their own here in Jacksonville. Some of her siblings went with their father to Iowa and a few went to other aunts, but Betty grew up on South East Street. Fred is from Brown County. Never afraid of hard work, Fred tells a tale of when he was a boy. His father had a team and wagon, and they would dig up and haul sand from the creek. They would fill the wagon to take it into town and go back to the creek three times. For all those efforts they would receive $8/ton, which consisted of a whole three loads! Betty and Fred shared a common aunt and uncle who lived in Waverly. Betty explains that “a Still at another time married a Mosley and didn’t have any children. Fred was a favorite nephew and would go spend time with them.” Betty’s brother was also the same age as Fred and the boys would get together. “In May 1951, the last day of school, I was a freshman and I went to my brother and his wife’s house,” recalls Betty with a smile as she looks at Fred, “and here comes this little guy with big dimples. Shy, oh, you can’t imagine how shy! You looked at him and he’d just drop his head. And he was 20 years old, that’s unusual!” She said Fred asked her brother about her, questioning, “She’s pretty, do you think she’d go to the show with me?” But she was too young to date at the time. “My mother wouldn’t have let me,” says Betty. When Fred heard she could not date yet, Betty recalls he asked her brother, “How old is she anyway? And when he told Fred that she was 14, Fred told her brother, “Well, I’m not taking out no kid, so I’m glad she can’t go out with anyone.” But, Betty said he kept coming back. The next time he went to Waverly, he stopped by and so on. “I was 14 and noticing the guys,” said Betty. “My mother scolded me. She told me, ‘Now you leave him alone. He’s too old for you.’ And I guess at the time six years was a big difference when I was only 14.” “Later we ran into each other at the fairgrounds by accident at the Fourth of July and again at the roller rink,” Betty recollects. “Then in the summer, he asked me to go skating with him. I thought I was so sophisticated when I told him, ‘I have plans with five girlfriends, I can’t break a date with them to go out with you.’” “During a September celebration at the aunt and uncle’s house in Waverly, I asked him to go to a hayride and wiener roast with me. He said, ‘I’m sorry, I have a date and I couldn’t break a date to go any place with you.’ And I remember bawling my eyes out all the way home.” Betty continued, “He dated a gal who was six years older than he was.” Soon after, Fred and her brother went into the Army. “Again, I saw him when they had a get together for the boys who were going into the service,” says Betty, looking at Fred. “He, my brother and his wife brought me home that night. Fred asked if I would write to him. I told him he had to write me first and he did. He was at Fort Leonard Wood at the time.” “In June 1952, he went overseas, and I continued to write to him,” says Betty, holding Fred’s hand and nudging him. “But they weren’t love letters, they were just letters. We wrote back and forth. Meanwhile, he was still dating this other woman in Pike County.” During the war Fred was a heavy equipment operator. “I earned the rank of staff sergeant in just 18 months,” Fred says proudly. While in Punch Bowl during the war Fred and another man were charged guarding the grader equipment overnight so it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. “One night it was 30 degrees below zero,” Fred said, “I just kept moving to stay as warm as I possibly could. The other man I was with said, ‘I’m cold and I’m going in,’ so he caught a ride and went back to camp at one point during the night due to the cold, but I stayed where I was because I was told ‘never leave your post.’” Fred stayed by the equipment despite the extremely cold temperatures by himself all night. He said the next morning the colonel came by to check to see if he had any ill effects from the night and he is pretty sure that is why he earned his stripe. Fred said, “I’d have stayed in the army if it wasn’t for Betty being home and I knew I needed to get back to her because she was dating.” “He came back August 5, 1953, on the first boat load back after the peace treaty was signed on July 27,” recalls...