Geraldine O’Neill met her husband Gene by a fluke in 1947.
Geraldine O’Neill met her husband Gene by a fluke in 1947.
She worked at Bank of America in Salinas as a secretary but was transferred to the Hollister branch for two weeks because the local secretary became seriously ill. While staying at the Holland Hotel downtown, a female co-worker invited Geraldine, who was 22 at the time, to her house for dinner with some friends.
“They were thinking she was lonely,” said Gene, who worked for the Almaden Winery at the time.
Gene, then 25, had merely stopped by the house to pick up his brother.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” he said of meeting his future wife.
A few days later, Gene went to a movie at the State Theater, by himself, some would even say a sign of loneliness. Geraldine, sitting by herself in the same theater, noticed Gene walk in.
“She looked up and smiled,” said Gene, with an exaggerated Irish accent. “And I plotted me-self down next to her.”
After the movie, they took a walk and agreed to go on their first date at a Bank of America dinner dance. While coincidence on several occasions brought the O’Neills together, 56 years of cooperation and understanding, according to Gene, kept them happily married ever since.
As the number of lasting marriages dwindles nationwide, several Hollister couples such as the O’Neills can boast of more than five decades together, distant memories of first meetings, first dates, weddings – only weddings – and wise perspectives on the keys to lasting love.
Interim City Manager Ed Kreins met his wife Emily in high school but they never dated during those years.
He said they were “friendly in school” – but nothing more. It was one year later, while riding the same bus everyday to San Francisco, when Ed decided to show interest in Emily.
“For some reason, I thought she was cuter after high school,” he said.
Every day on that bus Ed would put his legs up, pretending to be asleep, essentially reserving the whole seat for himself.
“But then I started (moving) my leg for her,” he said. “I think everyone else on the bus caught on.”
Eventually he asked her on a date to a basketball game at the San Francisco Cow Palace, and four months later they were married. The Kreins, both 68, will celebrate their 51st anniversary in June.
Curtis and Pat Graves will also celebrate their 51st this year. They met, according to Curtis, “just like the kids nowadays” – while cruising a Texas Main Street near a U.S. Air Force base.
There, he ran into Pat, who invited him to dinner at her parents’ house, a first date for Curtis with his future wife, and incidentally an old-fashioned romantic evening with her father as the chaperone. Curtis obviously survived.
Now the couple has four children, 16 grandchildren, a great-grandchild and another on the way. And today is not just Valentine’s Day in the Graves home. It’s also Pat’s 69th birthday.
Making it last
Pearl and Jack O’Donnell met while attending San Benito Junior College in the mid-1930s, and the couple will celebrate their 67th wedding anniversary in May.
Pearl offered simple advice for other married couples.
“Of course, you have to love each other,” she said. “You have to try through the years to make love last through trials and tribulations.
“We did,” she said.
So did George and Alice Wiswell. They met in Seattle, their hometown, at a big-band dance. They were married 55 years ago and moved to Hollister in 1992.
“I asked her to dance,” he said. “It seems like we’ve been dancing ever since.”
They have “shared everything” through the years, he said.
“We shared work, home, every bit of life together.”
He said a lot of modern marriages fail because young couples just expect too much from life.
“In the days we were brought up, people didn’t have expectations to be millionaires,” he said. “People were happy to have a home and family… We didn’t have all the goodies people seem to need nowadays.”
Hollister’s long-time married couples all have unique stories about meeting for the first time, each following a distinct path to a long and happy marriage.
But this week, a common sentiment resonated among them: Communication and cooperation are keys to a successful relationship.
“Probably the key for me is being married to Emily,” Kreins said.
“In the first place, we like each other. A lot of people don’t like each other.”
Kreins said it’s the little things, the everyday things, that really matter in the long run.
Emily, who didn’t make the temporary but indefinite move to Hollister, sends him a daily e-mail greeting from Nipomo, her way of saying good morning, a constant reminder that she supports his decision to work three hours from home.
After traveling together to 20 countries and more than 40 states together, Kreins said they’ve “just never gotten tired of each other.”
Curtis and Pat Graves never got tired either.
“Communication is the key,” Curtis said. “When things aren’t right, you figure it out, and have respect for each other.”
But he was quick to give most of the credit to his wife, for her congeniality and sense of humor, for their 50 years of marriage.
“She’s a wonderful person. I can’t say the same thing about myself,” he said with a laugh. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”
