Mom and Dad have been married for 70 years.

My parents were set up on a blind date by my mom’s cousin, Russell.  Russell knew my dad from working at NCR. I believe they were both 19 at the time. 

The rest, it’s said, is history.

We were your typical 60’s family.

My dad worked, mom stayed home with the kids and the three kids were expected to behave.  We did – most of the time. We didn’t have a lot of money but as kids we didn’t know that. What we did have was a lot of love.  As we grew older my dad made sure that each of us had the opportunity to go to college. He felt education was extremely important.  My dad would say, “We need to improve the breed.” Fast forward to today –Tanya, Rick and I have married wonderful spouses, Rod, Carolyn & Mike, respectively. 

My parents have seen the family grow to six grandkids and 8 great grandkids. As dad says now, “We have, in fact, improved the breed!” 

One thing that is consistent as the years went by is that there is still a lot of love in this family. We enjoy getting together even though distance can keep us apart. Last Thanksgiving brought us all together for the first time in a long time.

I admire my parents.  There were times when they could have thrown in the towel because things got hard but they didn’t.  I remember a lot of arguments but they would always stick it out. It was very rare for a day to go by that they didn’t smooch a time or two.  Eventually, the arguments would be forgotten and we were all back to laughing about the silly things.

See more Family Stories