Somebody once asked me about fact that Jean and I married young...20 and 1/2 for me, 17 and 1/2 for her. There was a time when I would recommend it. But I can't any more, for a very simple reason. There are too many, complex, and varied factors that come to bear. It was 1947, and that season, that year, that decade, that century cannot be repeated. I was in the navy, she was in high school, and WWII was barely over. Glenn Miller's music inspired romance of the old-fashioned sort...moonlight, roses, etc.
We were both idealistic. That's probably not conducive to anything. We had no money, my very meager navy pay (but about to end with impending discharge) and no savings.
Yet, it was also a rare period when jobs were plentiful, albeit of the "entry-level, minimum-wage variety." Our parents were not in position to support us, and we would never have asked!
Finally, but not at all completely, there is the matter of preparation. In our day (which did not last long) we had only our family values to guide us. Those were enough to sustain us for these six decades, but we were lucky to have them. Our vows were important to us. Nobody on either side had ever divorced. Divorce was to be avoided, maybe at all costs? (We both knew of couples who avoided it and suffered some consequences.)
If, today, one faces the decision to marry, one needs (desperately) to ask themselves, each other, and somebody wise, "are we ready?"
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