Outdoors help glue marriage

Well, we made it. Wife, Phyllis and I now have been married 50 years. It hardly seems I’m 50 years old. Maybe, I was born married.

Anyway, according to the calendar and official records, we were married 50 years June 9. Today, I consider that an accomplishment of which to be proud, but must acknowledge some luck. I found a country girl, who would put up with a stubborn writer nerd.

Both of us love the outdoors, and I’m convinced that has to be a major contributing factor to hitting the half-century married mark.

On a Friday, Phyllis and I were at my cousin’s wedding. On Saturday, Phyllis and I were married and headed to Lake Shafer for our 12-hour honeymoon. The next day, we drove to Indiana State for my graduation, and Monday morning I started a new job as a police and city hall reporter for the Terre Haute Tribune.

A couple months later, we managed a long-weekend honeymoon, this time to Lake Michigan and Chicago.

We have always camped, fished and enjoyed the outdoors together. We took our son, Erik tent camping before he was a month old.

However, about half of our anniversaries have been spent apart. For 25 or so years, I spent our anniversary with my fishing buddies on trips to Aerobus Lake in northwest Ontario. There were exceptions, on the anniversaries that ended in a zero or five, I had to be with Phyllis. The guys were kind enough to postpone the annual trip a week or two.

One year when we still lived on our small farm, we headed out for an anniversary dinner only to find that our cows had found a hole in the fence and were on the gravel road. We spent most of the evening with a roundup and repairing fence.

On our 25th, Phyllis announced we couldn’t go out to eat until her Putnam County 4-H Council meeting ended. There was important business on the agenda. Yeah, it lasted to 10 p.m., and the only thing open was serving burgers. But, I do remember it.

A couple months later and after my return from Canada, we took an anniversary trip to Ontario and stayed a week at Timber Point Camp at Lake Aerobus. Phyllis loved the beauty of the place, and enjoyed trolling for and catching lake trout after dinner.

Unfortunately, midweek she developed a sinus infection and we made a two-hour trip to the nearest and only doctor in Ear Falls. He wasn’t there for the appointment when we arrived. He had an emergency and had been flown into the bush to set broken leg.

When he returned, I went into his office with Phyllis. He checked her and provided medication. The wall behind his desk was covered with lures.

“Do, you collect lures?” I inquired. 

“No, they all have been removed from fishermen, and I keep them as part of my payment,” he responded.

Phyllis recovered quickly. We managed to catch more trout before our return trip south.

This year, I just wanted to slip off with my bride of 50 years to a small cabin somewhere to watch a few sunsets over a lake, and a dinner or two of walleye. But our kids decided otherwise and slated an informal get together of family and friends. Must admit it was wonderful, especially seeing people we hadn’t seen in some cases for many years.

Now soon, we plan another trip north in search of that cabin and a plate of walleye.

So, if you have found a potential new companion, it would be good to determine if he or she is outdoor compatible, but don’t try to teach them to fly fish on a first date.