Reliving the moment

Danette Goulet

FAIRGROUNDS - After 67 years of marriage, William and Anna Schaefer

still gazed at each other longingly as they renewed their wedding vows

with 17 other couples at the Orange County Fair on Thursday.

It was the fifth time the lovebirds stood before a preacher and vowed

to cherish each other forever. Time has just strengthened their bond,

they said.

“It brings us closer together,” said William Schaefer, 88.

And they still remember the first fall.

“She just liked me because of my car -- it was a Ford with a rumble

seat,” William Schaefer said.

“It was dark blue,” said his wife, 85-year-old Anna Schaefer. “I

hadn’t even seen him -- it was outside Sunday school on my block in

Chicago. My girlfriends said, ‘Let’s go in and see whose it is.’ We’ve

been going together ever since.”

The annual ceremony is meant to celebrate couples who have been

married for more than 50 years.

They are given boutonnieres and corsages, sparking cider and cake, the

men clad in tails and top hats. As the couples stood hand-in-hand before

a preacher on the main stage, each was more excited and loving than the

last.

“We love each other and can’t live without each other,” said

81-year-old Jack Millikan of his wife of 58 years, Gerry. “She takes care

of me and I take care of her.”

It was the fifth year the fair has performed the Golden Wedding

Anniversary ceremony and many of the couples were repeat customers.

Shirley and Wally Kreissig, who on Sunday will have been married 51

years, renewed their vows at the fair last year -- the first year they

were eligible.

They returned this year, sporting matching white slacks and teal

shirts as they clutched hands in anticipation of the big event.

“It kind of brings back memories of 51 years ago,” he said as his wife

nodded in agreement. “Except there weren’t this many people.”

The women laughed and cried and the men declared their love -- many

claiming that marital success was due to obedience.

“I attribute it all to two words: ‘yes dear’,” joked one longtime

husband.

“Our longevity is due to ‘Her wish is my command,’ ” quipped another.

Joseph DeCroix claimed that Mary, his bride of 51 years, married him

because of his talent for telling dirty jokes. And that’s why she’s still

around, he explained.