In 1950, gas was 27 cents a gallon, America was several years into a post-war “boom,” and Lyle and Corma Peterson said their “I dos.”
Lyle remembers not having access to the car keys on his wedding night like it was yesterday.
“They took the car keys and sent us over to her parents’ house. My brother and I married sisters, and so my car was getting fixed because I hit a horse out on the road,” Lyle recalled. "My car was getting taken care of, so they took the keys and they were hidden in her purse and they took off with them and it was almost midnight before we ever seen them again."
Lyle and Corma experienced a whirlwind of places and faces in their 73 years of marriage.
“We traveled a lot, I'll tell you that much,” Corma said.
The two call their family a “music” family, and many of their trips included just that.
“Myself and three of our boys, we played music at several places, we even went and played music for one president, and [Corma] was always there, and she remembers those trips we took to Washington, D.C.,” Lyle said.
The vows the two made on their wedding day in 1950 are still as strong as they were back then.
“You just say ‘yes’ a lot, and I think in the end that's the greatest thing you can do for one another, always watch out for one another,” Lyle said.
Their love is now being passed down through generations. Together the couple has 6 kids, 25 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren, with more on the way.
"The inspiration that they are to us as a family, to our kids, to our grandkids, to our great-grandkids for generations to come for just having the patience, the love and tolerance to stick it out and stay together,” said Lyle and Corma’s daughter, Darcy Knight.
"It seems like when things get hard, people want to split and go separate directions, but when things got hard, mom and dad just hung in there,” said their son, Kirt Peterson.
At 94 and 91, Lyle and Corma still follow the marriage advice they learned all those years ago.
"Always settle your arguments before you go to bed at night, and the last thing you do is say your prayers and tell them you love them because you never know if you're going to be there the next day,” Lyle said.
