The couple believe starting out as friends helped create a strong foundation for their marriage. People often have preconceived notions of what their dream husband or wife will be like, which leads to disappointment when their partner doesn’ t meet those expectations. Jennifer jokes that Steve fell off his white horse well before they started dating. In seeing each other’ s flaws and talents before their romance blossomed, they were able to fall in love with the individual rather than the ideal.“ We’ ve never really tried to change each other,” Steve said.
Both Steve and Jennifer feel that their relationship has made them calmer, more patient people. They’ ve learned what the important things are and what isn’ t worth getting upset about, and they find humor in most situations.
Although 59 years is quite a feat, the couple don’ t feel like they’ re special for it. They’ re just two people who never stopped growing together and supporting one another. They still love reading, playing card and board games, and travelling together like they did when they were young.“ No marriage is perfect, but it can still be fun,” Jennifer said.
Dave and Marianne Peoples
I say? You say‘ hi’ and if she says‘ hi’ back you’ re in love,” Dave said. After Dave asked Marianne to dance with him at their school dance, Marianne decided that she liked him too. The pair attended a few more dances together through the 7th and 8th grades, but at the end of Freshman year Dave moved to Massachusetts to live with his father, who was on Army assignment, without telling Marianne.
Marianne didn’ t see Dave again until serendipity struck one Christmas. She had come home from her junior year of college for Christmas mass, and Dave, who had just finished Navy boot camp and was on his way to Alaska, decided to drop by.“ I think we exchanged‘ hellos’ and that was the end of that,” Marianne recalled.
But this time they didn’ t let each other slip away. Marianne called Dave’ s grandmother to get his address so that she could send him a letter telling him she was glad to see him. Instead, Dave wound up calling her house later and when he found out she was heading back to Fresno State he showed up at the bus stop to see her off. The rest, as Dave says, was history.
Some people just seem fated to be together, and Dave and Marianne are a prime example. Their love story begins, bizarrely, with Marianne’ s school burning down in the 7th grade, resulting in her being transferred to the same class as Dave.
Almost instantly, Dave was smitten.“ She had a cute ponytail,” he recalled,“ And I was a normal 14-year-old boy, so what can
As they finished college and Navy school respectively, the couple exchanged letters and phone calls. During school breaks, they would go on dates, and on one momentous date in a little pizza shop in Fresno, Dave proposed. They were officially married December 26th, 1965, and recently celebrated their 60th anniversary.
Ten years ago, Dave and Marianne returned to the pizza place, curious to see if it was still around.( Continued...)
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