Editor's note: We're featurings stories about Lehighton's people and history in the days leading up to the 150th celebration.

Patricia (Gilham) Everett and her husband Arlington Everett are lifelong residents of Lehighton.Arlington was born in 1931, while Patricia was born on Fifth Street in 1935. She lived with her grandmother on Eighth Street until she married Arlington.They wed 63 years ago in the original Trinity Lutheran Church on Third Street on Christmas Day. They started their family with a son, Steve, and a daughter, Sherry, just a few blocks from where they live now.The beginningPatricia harbored a crush on Arlington in her high school days. Arlington worked as the manager at both theaters, The Classic on First and Iron streets and Park Theater where Fritz Lanes now stands."Back then it was 18 cents to get into a movie," said Patricia."Both theaters would be filled Friday and Saturday nights. Lehighton was a boom town," Arlington said.Patricia would ask her girlfriends to spy on both locations to make sure they caught the flick at the cinema where Arlington was working."I asked her for a ride home once and she refused me," Arlington says and laughs. "Then I left town for four years.""I didn't know what happened to him," Patricia said."I had quit school at 14 to work. We were not financially set to do anything else. I worked until I joined the Army," Arlington said.In 1948, he was shipped overseas for the Korean War. He served as special army working for the Air Force. He toured Okinawa for over a year and was sent to Korea for 16 months. He returned to the coal region years later."It was like when you come home and walk in the door, you feel great. That's what it was like coming back to Lehighton. Your hometown becomes a part of you," he said.During that time Patricia finished school while living with her grandparents. She would hangout with her two best friends after school at the Lehighton Fairgrounds."We would run around the track. And the horses were there too."The three women remain friends all these years and Patricia almost never misses a Kentucky Derby.The courtshipThe next time Patricia laid eyes on Arlington was during an interview at Lehighton Furniture Company. He had returned from the service and was working at the furniture company when he saw Patricia in the office."When I got there for the interview, who came walking up the stairs but him," she said. "I tried to duck behind the desk."Arlington asked her to see "From Here to Eternity" at the Allentown Colonial Cinema. Patricia was 18 and Arlington was 23 at the time.They fell in love and Arlington proposed after three months."Hey, I was good looking back then," Patricia says of the short courtship.They were married on Christmas. Patricia wore a white dress with red strips she purchased at the Bright's department store on First Street. It was a small ceremony followed by family dinners."We didn't have the money for a big event. Today they spend too much on it. You could put down a payment on a house for that," Patricia said."We were broke. We were all working families," Arlington said.Patricia continued on at the furniture company while the children were at school, sometimes in the office or in the factory. She always made it home before her children every night."It was good raising children here," said Arlington.Arlington started his own furniture business, Everett Furniture Company. In 1958, the store had grown and Arlington purchased his own building that still operates 60 years later with son Steve at the helm and Arlington helping out.The townLehighton changed around them as they lived their lives. The shops and stops that once kept the town hopping are gone."Lehighton is all together different. There is no 'First Street.' It's all second-hand stores," said Arlington."It was the business district of Carbon County. Hundreds of people would walk the streets," said Arlington. "First Street started to change when Bright's came in and the Keystone Restaurant left.""When the mall came, it killed First Street," Patricia said."That's when Bright's left. That started the down fall of Lehighton. There were grocery stores and shops. You could buy a banana split for 75 cents at Candyland. The Hotel Lehighton had restaurants and a barber shop," Arlington said."Now, we don't have department stores and we have a lot of pizza places. I'm glad they fixed up the park though," said Patricia.The Everetts built their home 13 years ago on 10th Street. Their custom home is filled with three generations of family under one roof, granddaughter Autumn and great-grandchildren Landon and Reagan."We went from two people to six or seven at the dinner table at night," Patricia said.