50 miraculous years

STEVE SMITH

They met and married in a different era; a time that seems so far

removed from our own that it’s almost a fairy tale.

Fifty years ago, America was roaring. Eight years earlier, we had

emerged on the winning side of a long and bloody battle, and when

that war was declared over by the president, it really was over.

But then the Korean “conflict” flared up, and before anyone could

recognize the depth of our commitment, America had sent more boys to

fight.

Bob had been a math major during his four years at Dartmouth.

After his graduation, he was old enough and wise enough to realize

that before Uncle Sam had a chance to snatch him up and send him

where he pleased, he should enlist and try to retain some measure of

control over his own destiny. So he did.

Shipped off to Germany, he met Jackie. She was a beautiful

23-year-old German girl, born and raised in Munich. After a brief but

proper courtship, he asked her to marry him, much to the chagrin of

her father, who was not comfortable with the thought of this soldier

taking his middle daughter as his bride. Sensing in him something

special, she said yes. They got married in Munich and celebrated at

the Hofbrauhaus before coming to America to settle down.

Back in the States, they settled in Massachusetts near Bob’s

family. He got a job at a bank and was put in charge of repossessing

cars. Rumor has it that he actually snatched one with a pregnant

Jackie along for the ride.

In 1958, Bob and Jackie moved to the new Los Angeles suburb of

Granada Hills. At the time, it may as well have been the moon to most

people, but Bob and Jackie saw the chance to raise a family in a

decent neighborhood. So they bought a house for less than $20,000,

doing without a second car which, at the time, seemed like an

extravagance.

“My parents always made friends in whatever activity they were

involved in, whether it was Little League or a bridge club or dancing

-- they liked to go dancing,” their daughter, Lynda, said.

Even at its young age, Granada Hills was a neighborhood. “I

remember that so much of our lives was based on what was happening in

the neighborhood,” she said.

In 1963, Bob and Jackie and their two children moved to a hillside

home in Woodland Hills that had a commanding view of the San Fernando

Valley, The house had a pool, and in later years, Bob used part of

the hillside to grow fresh vegetables. Jackie stayed home raising the

kids while Bob went off to work each day. Back then, “at-home mom”

was not the exception, but the rule.

Bob and Jackie’s home was one of those places where kids liked to

gather.

Holidays were a special time for them, particularly Christmas. It

was during Christmas that Bob and Jackie found themselves away from

their own families, Bob’s back east and Jackie’s in Germany. So the

home became Christmas central for people in the same situation,

people who did not have family with which to gather ‘round a

Christmas tree.

And what a tree it was. Each year, Bob and Jackie decorated it

with the usual ornaments, including the ones the kids made, but it

was made special by the live candles on the branches that were

lighted on Christmas Eve.

Bob and Jackie were not the Nelsons or the Andersons or the

Cleavers, but they shared a lot with the image those TV families

portrayed. They were decent, hard-working people who obeyed the law,

paid their fair share of taxes and gave something back to the country

that had been so good to them, whether it was Bob acting as a Little

League coach or both of them becoming involved in local politics.

Through the years, Bob and Jackie were rock solid, dedicated and

committed. They took their vows seriously, and though they read and

heard about the casualness of the marriage commitment of others, for

them, there was no option but to make their own marriage work.

Through the Cold War, some hot wars, and the nation’s economic and

social turbulence, marriages such as Bob and Jackie’s were something

you could count on. There was mid-life but no mid-life crisis.

Today, Bob and Jackie McGill celebrate their 50th wedding

anniversary, surrounded by their two children, Rick and Lynda; their

son-in-law, John Kurzeka; daughter-in-law, Cathy McGill; their eight

grandchildren; and a small group of family friends.

Today is payback. Today, these people will gather to honor not

just two people who have made a difference in their lives but who

have proved that there is nothing old-fashioned about love, honor and

commitment. Their lives could teach us all a thing or two about all

three.

So here’s to Bob and Jackie McGill. Thanks for showing us the way.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.