All you need is love

Seventy-five years is a long time for anything to last, especially in the fast-moving world that we live in today. Erwin and Carol Keim, longtime residents of Chadron, have been married for 75 years and celebrated this accomplishment with their family Saturday as The Big Event volunteers helped clean up their property.

As we sat on the front porch of their modest house, there were young kids running around playing with each other and enjoying the sunshine. The creaking of the porch swing, the chirps of birds, and the sounds of the volunteers cleaning the backyard all filled the air along with the sounds of the kids playing.

As we started talking, Carol told me about how she and Erwin first met.

“Oh things are so much different now,” she said. “It used to be that boys and girls went to a dance separate, and boys would come around and ask whoever looked good to dance, so you would if you liked the looks of them. And he did come ask me to dance. That’s the way I met him.”

Erwin told his side of the story too, saying that he saw Carol sitting down and everybody was dancing, so he walked over to her and asked her to dance, and they spent the night dancing with each other.

Carol and Erwin bought their property in 1955. When they bought the house, the property was quite a disaster according to the couple.

“The house had wood on it when we bought it, and the people we had bought it from had had goats and they had eaten some of the wood off of the house,” Carol said. “And Erwin went up in the attic and could stick his hand out from the holes in the attic because the roof was that bad. They had cans sitting up there catching the water. That’s the first thing we did when we came up here was shingle. Erwin did all the work himself.”

She continued to talk about Erwin and how he was quite a handy man to have around.

“I’ve done just about everything,” Erwin said. “And I worked in everything from the bottom to the top. I enjoyed it, and did it for all my life.”

Erwin and Carol became involved with The Big Event last year when they called Connie Kittell, of Chadron, the job site coordinator for The Big Event last year.

“A year ago I heard The Big Event advertised on the radio, and I called Connie first, she is the one that I was involved with last year completely,” Carol said. “She and her husband came down here and you can’t believe the work they did.”

When Connie saw the need that the Keim’s had for help, she, her husband and several neighbors helped the couple clean up a large of amount of trees that fallen during the bad windstorm last year.

“Connie’s husband came down here with his chain saw and tractor and he did so much work. Connie brought her kids and anybody she could find to do a little bit of work and that’s what they did,” Carol said.

During a phone interview, Kittell went on to say that the couple had given so much to the community that this was the perfect opportunity for the community to give back to them. She also said that it served as a great teaching opportunity for students that were involved with The Big Event. It was a chance to show the volunteers that they are young ,and they should give back to people while they can so that people will be willing to help them when they need it.

Kittell also said that Carol is still volunteering and giving back to the community of Chadron. Every Tuesday Carol volunteers at the Bread Basket sponsored by the Saint Patrick’s Parish. It is an organization that the parish organized to take the leftover baked goods from Safeway and give them to families that are in need within the community.

Kittell went on to say what kind and helpful people the Keims are.

Between giving to the community and working on their property, Erwin and Carol have a long list of accomplishments. One of which is the quality of their marriage.

“There is a lot of give and take in a marriage, and a lot of hard work,” Carol said.

When asked about any family traditions, Erwin said “Just her and me!” which was followed by a chuckle from him and laughs from the rest of the family sitting on the porch.

Erwin and Carol have four children, 10 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and 17 great-great grandchildren.