One warm Saturday night in 1945 two pretty 14-year-old farm girls from Lockney went to the "picture show" in Plainview, Texas. Two rowdy city boys from Plainview were also there that day. One of the girls was, Elna Sanderson known to her friends in Lockney as "muscles" for the strength she developed milking cows on the farm where she grew up, One of the rowdy Plainview boys was Walter Eugene Bloys, better known to his friends as Gene.

After about a year of secretly meeting Elna at the movie theatre in Plainview on Saturdays, Gene bought a used Model A Ford from money he earned cleaning metal filings from under the machinists work stations at Green Machinery. Finally he would be able to take Elna on a proper date.

Elna's parents agreed to allow her to date the rowdy boy from Plainview with one condition. Her cousin, Bill Horton, must go along as chaperone. For their first date Gene took Elna to the movie theatre where they had been meeting secretly for the past year. No one seems to remember what movie was showing but they remember Gene bought a Mounds candy bar at the concession stand with the last few coins he had in his pocket. He gave half to Elna and half to her chaperone. 

Eventually Gene and Elna were able to ditch their chaperone and go out on dates alone. Three years after they first met at the movie theater, the 17-year-old couple were married on a hot summer day in July. They moved in with Gene's parents while Gene worked nights and weekends to built a cinder block home in Plainview for the newlyweds.
 

In 1952, after the birth of their second child, they traded the house for a down payment on part of the farm where Elna grew up. Gene made a deal with Elna's father to borrow his tractor to make a crop. Gene would drive the tractor for his father-in-law for one day and for himself the next day.

For the next 67 years the rowdy boy from Plainview and the farm girl from Lockney built a life on the farm that included raising two sons and expanding the farm into a successful cotton farm that covered over 1500 acres. Bill Horton who had once kept the couple apart  became Gene's best friend and would remain so for the rest of his life.

In 2009 Gene lost his left leg. That same year Gene and Elna lost their son, Kenneth, who had been tending the farm after returning from California due to health concerns.

In 2018 Gene and Elna Bloys moved to Shallowater to be closer to their remaining son and medical facilities in Lubbock.

My parents were married 73 years until my father's death December 20, 2020. you can read more about this amazing man in his obituary. My mother passed 10 months later on October 18,2021. Here is her obituary.

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