I am thinking you are dealing with this diagram.

Edited to add: I was typing while Vith posted. He's probably right so my post is pointless but I spent time typing it so I'm leaving it! :)

how two switches should be wired

Does this mean that the switches aren't currently wired? Did you remove the switches and now you can't get it put back together? Did these switches and light ever work properly?

Do you have the switches that were there? You can determine if they are 3-way switches or a regular toggle by looking at them.

The light fixture only has a black and white set, goes into a junction box that T's out to other locations.

So you mean it has 3 black/white sets, right?

I've heard electricians used to turn a white wire into a hot wire in some instances
This is called a 'switch loop' if you'd like to google it and read up on how it works.

Is it possible the black, red and white wires meet in the junction box?

What junction box? You haven't described one. Do you mean 'a' junction box (as in, an unknown and undiscovered box)?

To troubleshoot:

The first step is to figure out what wire is the source. Make sure none of the wires are touching anything and turn the power back on. Use a meter to determine which wire has power.

Get back to us with the answers to the questions above and we can continue trouble-shooting.

Ahhhh so the power in comes through the light. Interesting. I will give this setup a try. Thank you!

Sorry, one follow up. The hot wire coming into the first receptacle is the black wire. Would that change the diagram you recommend?

Note the black is connected to the white in the diagram, so for yours in the light fixture the black would be connected to the black wire and both whites would connect to the light. Going off the diagram, the black would then connect to the first switch and the white would connect to the black.

Vith, thanks for all your help. I do truly appreciate the feedback the knowledgeable individuals are willing to donate to novices on this site. From gardening (when I first used it) to electrical.

The diagram didn't end up working though, so I went up into the attic and crawled all the way over to the junction box to see what was going on. Sure enough the black, red and white sets from both switches met in the junction. From the primary (power in) receptacle, black needed to bypass the switch connecting straight up to the black wire in the junction box from the light fixture. The red and white wires ended up being the travelers from the primary receptacle over to the black and red wires from the secondary receptacle. The white wire from the secondary receptacle ended up going back up to the junction box connecting to the white wire of the light. Essentially it ends up being a switch/reverse system (which I guess is the idea with a three way switch). In two setups the black wire to the light is power and it two setups the white wire to the light is power. Very strange. Did I mention it's a 50's house? I drew a diagram below, but please excuse my art skills.

It's unclear from your last post. Did you get it working properly or are you still looking for advice?

Glad you got it working. Yea they can be tricky, I always have to look up a diagram depending on the scenario (power at switch, or power at fixture, or power at fixture between switches, or power at switch with light between switches). Yep there are that many combos. Half the battle is figuring out what you are dealing with.

This is what you had then.

Do it correctly. What you have now is potentially dangerous. The hot wire needs to be controlled by the switches, not the neutral... even in the 50s. Someone probably messed it up since.

http://www.buildmyowncabin.com/electrical/3-way-switch-light-between1.gif

And quit using the word "receptacle" wrong. ;)

A "receptacle" is the device you plug a cord into. You are talking about a switch or junction box. The box where the light is wired is a junction box or outlet. An "outlet" can be a light or a receptacle.

Ah I see. I should tie the whites not the blacks at the first switch box. That makes more sense, fewer hot white wires! Thanks to you both!