YORKTON – Surrounded by friends and family, a Yorkton area couple celebrated their 70th anniversary together at Deer Park Golf Course's Owl's Nest June 23.
Stanley and Linda McKen married at Springside Baptist Church on June 18th, 1954, and have spent their life together living on a farm west of the city.
SASKTODAY.ca visited the McKen's farm to find out how they managed throughout their many years of marriage on the farm.
"We don't have arguments and if we do she wins them anyways," said Stanley, as they both laughed and smiled.
The two met at Windsor School in their youth, a school located near Springside, and later started dating in 1952. During this time, Stan trapped musk rats to sell their pelts in order to buy his wife-to-be a wedding ring. Back then, the engagement ring cost $112.50, the equivalent of $1,306.29 in today's dollars. After having been engaged for a year the couple married at the church with 80 guests in attendance.
For their honeymoon, they spent an evening in Melville follwing an evening in Regina.
"People weren't able to go like they do now," said Linda in regard to the honeymoon.
After returning from their honeymoon in the capital city, the newlyweds rented what Stan referred to as "a little cottage in the bush," that cost $25.00 a month and wasn't that far from where they live now.
"It was cold in there that winter. The water always froze in the reservoir," recalled Stanley of the first winter in the bush cottage.
To deal with the cold, Linda's mother made the couple a feather tick to keep them warm while they slept.
The two said they lived in Edmonton during the early years of their marriage where Stan had a job shaking hides — a process involved involved in leather work. Later, Stan worked for the water and sewer division of the city of Edmonton, earning $1.35 an hour while Linda pursued house work in the city.
Outside of two winters in Edmonton, the couple have spent the rest of their married years on the farm, the same farm Stanley grew up on. And though life on the farm wasn't always easy for the them, they agreed that working together all these years played a big part in strengthening their relationship.
"When we were farming we worked together all the time — picking stones making hay — we always worked together. If he needed help he'd call me. If I needed something fixed I'd call him," said Linda.
"She was a good stone picker and a good root picker," said Stanley to the laughs of Linda.
"You have to spend time together," said Linda, adding, "God was with us helping us. You have to have faith in something like that or else you'll fall apart."
Now, 70 years later, with Linda at 93 and and Stan at 94-years-old, the couple have two children, five grand children, and nine great grand children with another on the way. They've travelled to Arizona and the Martimes. Stanley worked crop insurance and Linda spent 22 years working for the Yorkton Hospital, while they both still helped their son Brent on the farm.
"It's a good life for me — the farming way — I'd do it over again," said Stanley.
"We had to stick together and work together so we could live. In our day we needed each other," said Linda of the longevity of their marriage.
And the couple offered advice for the young newleyweds of today.
"They should keep working together and loving each other and enjoy life because it goes pretty quick," said Stanley.
