 Fifty years. That's half a century. It's a long time. We were wed on June 13. We were married on a scorching hot afternoon. The wedding was scheduled for five o'clock because it was in a hot place—San Bernardino.
The church where we were married didn't last as long as we did. It was torn down not too long after the marriage.
We weren't going to live in San Bernardino, anyway. We met there and spent almost all the rest of our married life in the Santa Clara Valley.
We got married because we were madly in love and we still are. As marriages go—ours has been a placid, pleasant, satisfying, wonderful experience. I can't imagine anyone I would rather have spent the last 50 years with. I don't mean to imply that over those 50 years we haven't had disagreements, but those we have had haven't lasted long.
The one great memory I retain out of all these five decades is how much fun it has been. We can almost always make one another laugh. There's no more saving grace than laughter, and we have been able not only to laugh at the same things but also at one another.
In 50 years we have been all over the United States and in at least 20 countries. We've camped in the snow, sweated in Costa Rica, gone snorkeling in Australia and Bermuda, drunk wine and eaten fabulous meals in France, seen the Eiffel Tower and the Tower of London, sailed on fjords and up College Sound in Alaska. Somehow it's been one long honeymoon.
We've lived in the same house almost as long as we've been married. We hope that when we go for good they'll be carrying us feet first out the front door. We've been blessed with children and with grandchildren, without whom these years would have lacked much.
We tend to think of ourselves as that same happy couple that spent their wedding night in the Mission Inn in Riverside. Like the church in which we were married, the Inn is no longer a place to to stay overnight or we might have tried.
And that raises the question of what one does do when one has been married for 50 years?
We've thought of having a very large party. We've thought of taking the trip of our dreams. But having a large party involves a lot of work, and almost all of our trips have been trips of our dreams. And the current travel environment is uncertain.
So we are going to have a picnic, but that's about it. It's not that there isn't a lot to celebrate—there is. It's just that being married 50 years is both a happy and a sort of sad occasion.
We have all those wonderful memories, but we also know 50 years is a long time and that it is unlikely there will be another 50.
—Carl Heintze is a frequent contributor to The Sun.
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