Patience, love, stubbornness, sticking together and forgiveness. What do these things have in common? At Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Peachtree City, these are secrets of some very special couples for long and happy years of marriage.

Twenty couples were honored at a recent dinner party in the church’s fellowship hall, followed by a program celebrating their anniversaries.

Each golden couple had been married from at least 50 years to as many as 62, with an incredible average of 58.

Pastor John Weber said he and his wife Ginnie had been wanting to celebrate this event for a long time and the congregation’s marriage ministry was ready to help. The celebration was hosted by the Webers and Associate Pastor Miriam Beecher and her husband David.

The couples were all “young at heart” as they enjoyed an evening of 1950s songs and guessing pictures of who was who on their wedding day.

The evening ended with renewal of their wedding vows and red roses for the ladies.

Many of the couples were high school or junior high sweethearts. Some of the places they met were at a skating rink, a dance, a blind date, a soda bar, college after the war, a party or outside a barber shop, to mention a few.

For many it was love at first sight, even if they were out on a date with someone else and the “chemistry” was there. (One of the men went on to a career in chemistry.)

Stories were shared by the couples. One of the more interesting told of a young sailor who bought his girl a charm bracelet when he was at Navy training school. When he was out to sea and stopped in different ports, he would buy her a charm.

He and his girl had devised a secret code. He would put a message in the charm and send it to his girl so she would know where he was at all times.

The charm bracelet is now a family heirloom. He said the only sad thing was that she did not keep the messages.

Two of the couples got tickets from the police on their honeymoons. One was speeding past a funeral procession in Georgia and got slapped with a $93 fine. The other got a $10 speeding ticket and when the state trooper found out they were on their honeymoon he wrote “Best Wishes” on the ticket.

Many of the couples did not have cars in the ‘50s so they took trains, buses and ferries to go on their honeymoons. A ferry from Philadelphia to Camden, N.J. cost 8 cents a person.

As the evening ended and all the stories were shared, some of the best advice the couples offered the next generation was to honor their wedding vows and “always remember the reasons you fell in love in the first place.”