Thankful for 70 years of wedded bliss

By Cecile Wehrman

Everett and Bernice Hanson have been married since the Great Depression.

They'll celebrate their 70th Thanksgiving together this year.

At 91, Bernice is the older woman.

"He’s a few months younger," Bernice says.

"We're both born in `14," Everett explains.

They grew up just a few farmyards away from their home of the last 50 years, located a couple of miles west of Ambrose.  But they weren't sweethearts the whole time.

"Oh no," Bernice says.  "But the families were always friends, always. Forever."

That's a long time.

"So I guess we just kind of grew up together."

And grew old together.

"It's gone fast."

The wedding, on Bernice's dad's birthday, Oct. 20, 1935, took place on the Hanson family homestead.

"We didn't have flower girls or ring bearers," Bernice says. "His brother and his wife were our attendants."

"We didn't have a lot of money," Everett says, and then corrects himself. "We didn't have any money."

After their wedding dance, the couple headed to Williston for their honeymoon.

"We've been there several times since," Everett jokes.

They lived that first winter with his folks before moving to a farm in Twin Butte township, south of where they live now.

Their daughter, Marlyn, came along two years later, and a few years after that, a son, Les.

In the early 40s, they moved to Ambrose and Everett went into the implement business. It didn't take long for him to get back to farming, his true calling.

They built their present home in 1952 and haven't seen any reason to leave it.

Since then, they raised children and race horses, traveled to Europe and all over the United States. Everett and Les farmed as many as 32 quarters at one time, while Bernice kept the men fed, the clothes washed and the grass clipped.

This was the first year Everett wasn't actively engaged in farming.

Looking back, they're thankful for many things.

"God has blessed us with our children and we've done fairly well in our life as far as worldly things are concerned and we're in good health," Bernice says.

She's the practical one. Everett is the romantic one.

"I'm thankful for the person she was," he says. "I never had a day in my life that I didn't feel I had the right woman and I wanted her as long as I could have her. I wouldn't know what to do without her."

In other words, "We are in love today just like when we were married."

They've learned a thing or two in 70 years, about keeping love alive.

"Don't both get mad at the same time," Bernice counsels, "not saying that we didn't."

Also, "Having a wonderful woman to start with is very important, very important," Everett says.

But how do you know you've got the right one?

"When you're as young as we were it's hard to know isn't it?" Bernice asks.

Over 70 years, Everett says, it's the little things you really appreciate.

"I have a drawer full of clothes put away just as neat as can be - It seems like a little thing but it’s a big thing in the busy life we had."

Stick-to-it-tiveness is important, too.

"Nowadays it seems like they don't put the effort in," Bernice says. "You just kiss and make up, I guess."

"Yep," Everett agrees, "we always did."

Journal Publishing Inc.
Crosby, North Dakota
www.crosbynd.com/journal

Used with permission