It was the spring on 1976 and Ron Wegleitner was doing what any 17-year-old car nut in  Saskatoon would be doing. He was washing his car, getting ready to do some street racing.
    He got talked out of racing that night. Instead, he was set up on a blind date. Ron and his friends rolled up to Rete’s house that night. She was in Saskatoon studying hairdressing.
 “Just as I pulled up to the house, they informed me they had someone they wanted me to meet,” Ron tells the Mail. “I turned  around and she walked out of the house, and I looked at her, I said ‘that’s the lady I’m gonna marry.’”
     Rete wasn’t too sure of the young man with wild long hair. They went out that night, but Ron sat in the back seat.
    “I chased her for about three months and then I got a date,” he said.
    Rete left Saskatoon during that summer for work, and when she got back they began to date around October.
    Family was always important, and they were best friends with his parents. The had a family band and spent many nights playing. When they would get the chance they would all go dancing. The band still gets together for family and special events.
    They were married in 1977 and in 1980 had their first child. Not long after that, they had the opportunity to come to Drumheller.
    “Some friends of ours wanted to buy a garage where the Quick Lube is now, Riverview Park Texaco. He asked if I would think about moving down there to run the shop, that was 1982,” he said.
    The long term plan was to be in the valley for a couple of years, and then head to BC to work in a mine or lumber mill, and then the Northwest Territories. After that, he would return to Saskatchewan. However, they stayed in the valley.
    They operated the garage on Highway 9, and then had the shop at a location on Bridge Street. In 1990 they moved into R&R Automotive in downtown Drumheller where he operated until 2008. Currently, Ron works for Atco and Rete is at Drumheller Associated Physicians.
   Along the way, they raised their two boys, and as an active member of the Rotary Club, had five Rotary exchange daughters who have remained close. Ron says he counts family by the heart and not by blood.
   Almost 42 years later they say the secret is patience, lots of love and laughter.
   “You have to have fun together,” said Rete.
    “I told my son and daughter-in-law, and I have told lots of young couples, ‘you spend more time picking out a phone than a mate,’” laughs Ron. “For me, she was the one I wanted to marry in 1976, and she is the one I would marry today if I had to do it again.”

    More than six decades ago Barb Ouellette had no idea how much hockey and baseball she would watch over the coming years, but with 64 years of marriage under their belts, seven children, and nine grandchildren, Roger, 89,  and Barb, 86, Ouellette wouldn’t change a thing.
    Barb was working at the Toronto Dominion Bank in Oyen and Roger was a young man working for Canadian Utilities.
    When Roger is asked what he thinks caught her eye all those years ago, he chuckles said it was his new 1954 Plymouth. Barb however laughs and says a year after they were married they had to sell it and get a used car.
    Another version of their story had to do with a tardy Canadian Utilities worker trying to cash his pay cheque.
    “That bank was only open until noon on Saturdays and he came running in at five to 12 and I had to let him in and out because the door was locked,” said Barb. “Don’t ask me how much his cheque was because I wasn’t the teller!”
    As for dating, Barb says “We went to ball games and hockey games, the same thing we do now,” she laughs. Roger, of course, was an avid baseball and hockey player. As the children and grandchildren sprouted up they were involved in sports with them.
The life of a lineman didn’t keep them in one spot for too long. They were married in Oyen and had their first daughter. Their second daughter was born in Three Hills. After that, they moved to Consort where they stayed for 15 years and had five more children. Barb’s best Valentine gift was her seventh child, Glenn who was born on February 14, 1965.
    “Very fertile county there,” said Barb.
    After that, they were in Drumheller for five years, and then up to Vermillion. They moved to Three Hills where Roger retired. After a short stint in Stettler, they moved back to Drumheller in 1996.
     Even after retirement, he was busy on the field.  In fact, they would winter in Arizona and for 15 years he played senior ball. Even after they no longer went south, he continued to play with a team from Linden.
    It was a rigorous schedule with tournaments almost every weekend. Barb would accompany him on the trips.
   “I liked watching baseball. I never played because I was scared of the ball,” she said.
  They also did some travelling together. They went to Alaska, Mexico, and a cross Canada trip after Roger retired. One memorable trip was a snowmobiling trip to Yellowstone that Roger won.
    The secret to 64 years of marriage? According to Barb, is they simply got along. They weren’t the jealous types.
    “We didn’t smother each other, he went with his friends, and I went with mine, and then we would go together. We are compatible… we had a happy medium.”
    “The secret is separating work life from personal life.”