Bruce and Lorraine Wick: Turning 91 together

Both Bruce and Lorraine Wick say they have trouble believing they have been married almost 70 years.  The photos verify the facts, though. The couple was married on Oct. 15, 1955 in Le Center, Minn., their home town.  Both had graduated there along with about 28 others as the community's class of 1952; they had gone to prom together, twice, and had been dating all throughout high school.

 

In fact, Bruce claims he was smitten with Lorraine from the first time he saw her, when she began attending "town school" in second grade.  "I got one look at her and I thought, "Wow!"  he recalls. Then he goes on to describe the blue jumper she was wearing and the placement of the ribbons which held her braids in place.  It was part of family lore that Lorraine once claimed Bruce couldn't really be remembering those details, but he states his recollections were proven correct when a photo turned up among some others Lorraine's mother had taken when her children were young.

 

 Lorraine was a country girl, born to Lewis Thur and his wife Frances.  She had only one sister who was about 10 years older than she was.  Bruce was raised in town; his father, Ralph, owned and operated a number of different businesses while he and his wife Mildred raised their family of seven children. Mildred was a full-time homemaker.  As fourth to be born, Bruce was the very middle child.

 

Coincidentally, Mildred and Frances were pregnant at the same time.  When the delivery seemed to be approaching, Frances came into town to her parents' house to be nearer to the doctor.  Back in 1934, doctors still made house calls.  When Frances and Mildred happened to be in labor at the same time in houses a block and a half apart, one physician was able to attend both of them, moving back and forth between them as things progressed.  The two babies were born within half an hour of each other- Lorraine at 4 a.m. and Bruce at 4:30 - on Monday, Sept. 24, 1934.

 

After graduating high school, the two knew they planned to marry, but decided they would wait until the time was right.

 

Lorraine attended Mankato Commercial College, following a track which taught the skills needed to be a secretary; high on the list were typing and shorthand.  She finished in less than a year and was offered a job at the Green Giant Central Office in Le Sueur, which she accepted.

 

Bruce began attending what was then "Mankato State Teachers College" in the fall after graduating in 1952. Although the lower campus had had two dormitories for women for some time, Bruce said he felt privileged to be among the first occupants of a newly built men's dormitory.  He signed up to major in business administration.  For his freshman and sophomore years, Bruce said he was able to get by financially by working very hard and  saving his money during the summer and then "living on practically nothing" for the months college was in session.  Despite its benefits, though, Bruce admits to having broken the pattern during the summer prior to his junior year.  "I bought a car," he shares.  "A used car, but a nice one."

 

When he found himself without finances after the first quarter of his junior year, he turned to the idea of joining the Air Force and being eligible for the G.I. Bill-a program which helps cover the cost of post-secondary schooling for veterans.  After basic training at Parks Air Force Base in Calif., he was sent to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base at Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Today, the most visible tasks there are associated with missiles, but Bruce's training there centered around warehouse supply; the receiving, storing and shipping of supplies. 

 

Bruce and Lorraine decided the "right" time had arrived; they scheduled their October wedding back home in Le Center; Lorraine left her job at Green Giant.  During a quick visit to Cheyenne they were able to find an apartment and make arrangements to move in after the wedding.

 

"We call that our eight-month honeymoon!" Bruce remembers.  His training and work at the air force base went so well he was offered a position as an instructor - which seemed to mean he would be stationed there for his entire time in the service.  It took Lorraine only days to find a job in Cheyenne.

 

For the next several months, things seemed to have fallen smoothly into place - until Bruce and the other instructors were surprised by orders sending them to France.  With the "honeymoon" suddenly ending, Lorraine moved back to Le Center.

 

When Bruce returned 16 months later, he had one year remaining in the service.  Offered a choice between Wisconsin and Duluth, he chose Duluth.  He and Lorraine purchased a trailer house.  "It was less than 40 feet long," Bruce describes, "and if I stood in the center, I could almost stretch out my arms and reach both sides." It suited their needs and their budget, though, and was destined to provide their dwelling place for about three years.

 

When Bruce's military service was completed in 1958, the couple moved back to Mankato. Bruce changed his major to teaching - he says his experience as an instructor in the military had been positive, and had given him what turned out to be some unrealistic ideas about student motivation. However, he wouldn't learn that until 1960.

 

In the meantime, the couple brought their first child, Patty, into the world. She was born in Mankato in 1960. Society's expectations being what they were, Lorraine would not return to professional employment for about the next 16 years.

 

That fall, Bruce was offered a position as a social studies teacher in Minneota, a small town northwest of Marshall. When they decided to rent a house there, the plan was to sell the trailer and use the money to buy furniture. Instead, the store owner offered a trade: a certain value of furniture in exchange for the trailer. To this day, the couple owns and uses a few of those pieces. The two say their time in Minneota was marred by being 130 miles from home, and in a small town with limited local offerings. Their family had also grown with the addition of their son Bob, who was born in Marshall in 1961. "If I had known how well they were going to turn out," jests Bruce regarding their children. "I might have gone for three or four. But we stopped at the two of them."

 

So when Bruce learned of a teaching position in Waseca, only 35 miles from Le Center, the family relocated. They rented their dwelling for a while, but within five years had the good fortune to purchase a house only two blocks from Central High School in one direction, and two blocks from their church in another. "And that was our home for the next 38 years," summarized Bruce, who continued as a member of the Waseca district’s high school social studies department until retiring in the spring of 1993.

 

When their children were teenagers, Lorraine returned  to the professional world, finding that typewriters had been replaced by computers. She says she joined the staff of Waseca Mutual Insurance Company just as the company began the process of transferring its paper records to computer files. She apparently learned quickly, since she went on to serve as a department manager working with data entry and retrieval for more than 20 years before she also retired in 1994.

 

The two eventually sold their first home so that they could purchase a different one with fewer levels.

 

After retirement, Lorraine describes taking some pleasant trips together. They bought a used motor home for the purpose of driving to Alaska. They spent a month sightseeing there, as well as the drive up and back. They also later joined a tour to Nova Scotia. While doing genealogy they took a long trip to visit family across a wide area of the United States. These days, Lorraine says, they're content to live a quiet life, with their weekly gathering for coffee with some friends and fellow retired teachers. They also attend church when they can. Visits with their children and grandchildren are always looked forward to. The couple has two grandchildren, Ross and Emily, ages 29 and 30, and one great-grandchild with another on the way.

 

Of Bruce, Lorraine says, “Bruce continues to impress me with his long term memory. He can recall things from a long time ago that I have forgotten.”

 

Bruce says he still has a soft heart for his childhood sweetheart, naming one of her strengths: “She has amazing thoughtfulness and caring about others. She always puts others first.”

 

Their long life together means they have celebrated their shared birthday, "oh, in so many different ways,"  comments Lorraine with a smile, seeming to hint she does not plan to look for any more special tweaks for their party in September.

 

"Living to 91," comments Bruce philosophically, "doesn't seem to be such a big deal anymore. Thanks to modern medicine, many people live to that age. "But being married for 70 years, that's a bit more of an accomplishment." We're both still alive and in reasonably good health. Our lives are so intertwined, it's almost as if we've lived one shared life."