Childhood Sweethearts      Almost 65 years of marriage have bound JW and Waunetta Jacobs Bundridge as one in a beautiful walk through life. J. W. didn't remember how they met, "it was so long ago" but Waunetta remembered, " it was at a country school pie supper."      J. W. and Waunetta are both native to this area and one of Waunetta's favorite memories as a child was when they moved to Milan to the Cora area near the Mt. Zion Church. She told us "they (the church) had a piano and when the weather was good I would go to the church and play that piano." With a little prodding she admitted she sang also. J. W. and Waunetta had already told us they loved to dance and were considered about the best. Square dancing was a favorite but they liked other dances as well. J. W. said Waunetta was "pretty good" dancing the Charleston. J. W. said it had been too long to remember a favorite childhood memory right now.      J. W. attended the Crossroads School in Cora and Waunetta attended the Hazel Ridge/Terry Schools. She said there were a lot of those little one room schools dotted around the country and from the smiles that there memories brought they both must have had many happy hours in those schools, including, many pie suppers.      J. W.'s first car was a black model "T" Ford about 1921. J. W. didn't drive, but his father or Waunetta drove them where they wanted to go. When asked if he could "spark" Waunetta in the model "T" with his dad driving, Waunetta quickly said "we didn't think about sparkin, we were going to a square dance or pie supper where the fun was."      J. W. and Waunetta had five children, four girls, Shirley, Karron, Linda and Nita Faye, they also had a son Roger. Roger is deceased; one daughter lives in Iowa and the other three live here in Milan. Waunetta's advice to young couples to achieve 64 years of happy marriage is to "trust one another and don't give them any reason to be untrusting". J. W.'s advice to young men on how to treat their wife is "half way behave yourself". When asked if J. W. got away with the "half way" part, Waunetta responded "I didn't think I had any reason to distrust him" then with a chuckle and twinkle in her eye, she jokingly said "if I had, I would have beat it out of him". J. W. laughed and admitted he had never been beaten.      Our final question was about all the changes they had seen over the years, and J. W. responded that he thought the most important was communication and travel. When he was young it was all horse and buggy and although he has never flown in an airplane he said "I think the way people can communicate and travel anywhere today is the most significant change over the years". J. W. and Waunetta are one of the delightful, loving, senior couples that Milan is blessed with and we were truly blessed by meeting and visiting with them. Thank you J. W. and Waunetta For more interviews like this one visit www.SullivanCountyMissouri.com © 2004.