Love Stories: Seventy five years of marriage ‘wasn’t hard’

Louis Kirschbaum had his eye on his future wife long before she acknowledged his existence.

“She was best friends with my sister, Helen,” he said.

However, Louis held little interest for Margaret. “We lived on the same side of town, two blocks apart, but I didn’t pay any attention to him.”

Sadly, her friend passed away, and though she grieved for her friend, she still didn’t give much thought to Helen’s brother.

That changed in high school. One day she got a note from another of Louis’ sisters. The note asked Margaret to accompany Louis to the movies. He had to send it through his sister because he no longer attended school. “I had to quit high school to go to work,” he said.

But his missive finally got Margaret’s attention. “That note was the start of it,” she said, smiling.

“It” is a relationship that has spanned seven decades. On June 22, the Kirschbaums will celebrate their 75th anniversary.

After all these years, the details of his proposal are no longer clear, but Louis said, “It probably was not a big romantic type deal.”

Romantic or not, the couple married in 1940 and settled into a little rental house in Missoula. Margaret was 17, Louis 21, and soon they were proud parents of a son they named James.

“Lou made $18 a week,” Margaret said. “He helped people who did furnaces and plumbing.”

In 1942, he passed the plumber’s exam, but work in Missoula had dried up. Friends found jobs in Spokane and encouraged the young family to make the move.

When the U.S. entered World War ll, Louis wanted to do his part. “He tried to enlist in the Seabees, but they said his eyes weren’t good enough,” Margaret said. “They told him the Army wouldn’t take him either, so we bought a house.”

Six months later, Louis was drafted by the Army.

Margaret and Jim returned to Missoula and Louis shipped out to Europe. He spent Christmas 1944 on a ship, wracked by seasickness. “I was sick every day,” he said. “They pretty near had to carry me off the boat.”

Louis served as a tank commander. “From France we were sent to a small town in Belgium near the front lines,” he recalled. “We were replacements for a crew that had been killed.”

It was grim, relentless warfare. “We just went from town to town, taking one and moving on.”

Meanwhile, Margaret eagerly awaited letters from Europe. “Nowadays, girls think something’s wrong if they don’t get a phone call every day,” she said. “I got a letter every month!”

Louis was in Austria when the war ended. “I saw people walking down the road, leaving a concentration camp.”

When asked how he coped with the things he saw and experienced, he shrugged. “I just went from day to day and left it at that.”

He arrived home in March 1946 and Margaret was there to meet his train. Louis smiled at his wife, “I hope I gave her a kiss!”

By 1947, they were back in Spokane where Louis took a job with Warren, Little and Lund, a commercial plumbing company. He worked for them for 35 years.

“We never wanted for work,” he said. “Most of the jobs were out of town. I’d leave at 4 a.m. Monday and come home Friday night.”

His home and family were safe in Margaret’s capable hands. That family grew when son Mike was born in 1951.

“I’d tell the kids, ‘Now let Dad get organized and comfortable before we tell him any problems,’ but as soon as he was through the door, they’d told him everything!”

Busy years ensued. In addition to his full-time work, Louis often got a notion to build a house, including a cabin he built on Hayden Lake in 1955.

“It just seemed like what he wanted to do,” said Margaret.

She was his partner in all their ventures. “He called me an expediter, I called me a lackey,” she said, laughing.

Their lives weren’t all about work. They made time for fun, too. “We went dancing,” Louis said. “I don’t think I was very good, but she was.”

Margaret smiled. “I taught him everything I knew.”

Despite his love of hard work, Louis had no problem adjusting to retirement. Knowing they both loved to travel, he bought a motorhome two years before he retired.

Cross-country trips only whet their appetite for more. “We’ve been to every state in the union except West Virginia,” said Margaret. “Somehow we missed that one.”

They recalled memorable visits to Alaska and a fall foliage tour of New England. “I did all the driving,” Louis said. “She kept me on the right road. She was a good navigator.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Margaret said. But 20 years of travel and safe returns – including overseas trips, demonstrate just how well they work together.

Now, Louis, 96, and Margaret, 92, have curtailed their travels and look forward to celebrating their 75th anniversary with a family that has grown to include four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Their advice to others who hope to achieve such a milestone is simple. “Hang in there!” said Margaret.

Louis nodded. “Stick with it,” he said and glanced and his wife. “I’ll tell you, it wasn’t hard for me.”