He tells a lovely story about how he wanted a boat when their kids were young, and Connie didn't. "It wasn't her thing, but she told me I could get the boat as long as I would keep my interest in it."
And he did. He didn't run out on the bay all alone, though. He took their boys with him. The boat could have been a bone of contention. Instead, the pleasure over their compromise overshadowed everything else.
That same deep satisfaction is in all his stories -- from deciding how much to talk about the business at home, to how to handle the death of their adult son, to whether to move to a condo later this year.
They joke that they could never remarry. Neither would ever find another who would be so agreeable, who would understand their moods.
Those magazine experts think that this kind of marriage is nearing extinction. I don't see that at all. Instead, I think couples who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries are pioneers.
Even though they grew up in a more socially conventional time, these couples spent the most turbulent years of their marriages in the '70s, when the divorce rate skyrocketed. Dick and Connie Shortt are married 50 years because they want to be married -- not because they had to be married, or because it wasn't socially acceptable to get divorced, or because they couldn't afford to part.
They are pioneers because over an entire life span their generation is the first with a real choice. And they choose monogamy.
How's that for individual freedom?
Source: ESource: Virginian-Pilot. Powered by Yellowbrix.
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