Glen and Anita Cook will be married 70 years this September 23. They met in Gordon, Nebraska, of all places, in September 1949 at a small bible school.
Anita told me Reverend Lund was going down there, so several Montana kids from here went. Glen said his pastor was from there, so he went there with him, but Anita interrupted him and said, "He went there because of a girl." And she chuckled. "Ya! well, she encouraged me to go." And he and Anita laughed together. They didn't fall in love right away; it took a while. "He had to get rid of that girl," Anita added. "We got together and cleaned the church together." Glen continued the story, "the school we had to do things just so. We had to do it kind of on the side." Anita said, "We all ate at a common dining room." They wouldn't let them do anything together, "but there was a mirror situated just right so we could see each." They couldn't even sit together in church or anything like that.
After bible school, Glen went back to the family farm in Nebraska to help with the harvest, but he came up to Big Sandy afterward and asked Anita to marry him in 1950. I asked if she accepted the proposal immediately, and she said, "oh sure!"
After their wedding, Glen took her home to Nebraska, and "what was waiting for me was my orders to go into the Army, and I left her within one week." His folks brought Anita down to Texas, where he was stationed. She was with Glen there for three months, before he was shipped out. He was supposed to go to Korea, but "I got lucky because while on the boat, my orders were changed." He got sent to Japan, to "the best deal you ever saw in your life. It was a perfect situation, and we lived like kings. Royalty!"
They didn't see each other for a year and a half.
After Texas Anita came back to Big Sandy and worked in the drug store, before she returned to Nebraska where she was going to help Glen's folks with the harvest, but she got the Mumps and was sick in bed for three weeks.
Glen and Anita have three boys, Rodney in the Phoenix area, and Kenyon and Lance of Big Sandy. They have seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
I asked them, "What has held you together for 70 years." They thought for a minute, and Glen said, "Church. Love. As Christians, you stay together." Anita said, "We were both farm kids. That is a big plus, both being raised on the farm. What farm wives have to do. I admire the city gals that come on to the farm. You have a yard, garden, house, and raise kids, but then I was out on the combine, tractor, truck. I could do everything."
Anita is 89, and Glen turned 94 just last week. "I'm going to ignore it and keep going."
I asked Anita if she had any advice. "Pick your battles. You can make big deals out of little things. You can let a lot of things go. I think that is the main thing."
Glen said, "I know it was God that brought us together." Glen is happy here, but he'll always be a little bit Nebraskan.
