We can pick cotton, pick a chicken clean of feathers, and pick pockets.  We can pick and choose, pick holes, and pick our way. 
If we were to pick a person pierced by the pointy arrow of the god of love, we would most certainly pick a Bohn.  For this Valentine issue of the Gazette, Cupid picked Victoria's Jerry and Marlene Bohn, a husband and wife team whose two hearts beat as one. 
Said Mr. Bohn, "We are companions.  We're not only married, we're friends.  Marlene is the person I do everything with.  We're comfortable together.  We don't need other people to enjoy an evening.  On Friday and Saturday nights, we are always together."
Said Mrs. Bohn, "I want to spend more time with Jerry.  I want to spend the rest of my life with him.  I always wish the best for him."
Marlene's wish to spend more time with her husband is coming true today for as of February 1^st, 2001, Jerry is a retired man.  Because they are active, energetic, and still young, the Bohns will continue to pick biking and hiking, rollerblading and skiing.  Because they're open to new avenues, they may even pick golf.  But one thing is for certain, they'll pick each other.  They'll pick a Bohn -- of love.

Jerry was born in Milbank, South Dakota, on January 8^th, 1943, to Ken and Dallas Bohn.  Milbank is near Ortonville and the Minnesota River Valley.  Jerry has a younger sister who lives with her family in Minneapolis.
His parents were farmers until he was in third grade.  "I attended a one-room country school," said Jerry.  "There were eight grades and eight students.  I recall that I was one of two first graders.  After third grade our family moved to Hayti, South Dakota, and Dad got into the propane and bottle gas business."
That propane business took the Bohn family across the border to the Minnesota towns of Ortonville, Albert Lea, Little Falls, and, finally, Redwood Falls.  When the kids were older, his mother sometimes worked outside the home at J.C. Penney's or a jewelry store.
"I graduated from high school at Redwood Falls in 1961, then went to the University of Minnesota," said Jerry.  At the University he obtained his electrical engineering degree in 1966.  While a student in Minneapolis, Jerry Bohn met his Valentine.

Marlene was born the sixth of seven children to Roman and Veronica Buller on March 26^th, 1944.
"I was born in Graceville, Minnesota, which is not all that far from Milbank, South Dakota," said she.  "We lived there until I was six, then we moved to Shakopee for two years, and when I was in third grade we moved to Chaska.  From then on I attended Guardian Angels Catholic School in Chaska."
Marlene's parents started out in farming, but her dad eventually turned to factory work and carpentry work, "whatever it took to raise and support seven kids," said the appreciative daughter.  "In those days, people didn't look for self fulfillment from a job as much as a paycheck for their family."
Some of Marlene's siblings live in the metro area; her brother Vern Buller and his wife Gail live in Victoria.  As a matter of fact, from the Bohns' living room window, overlooking snow-covered ponds and tree tops, one can see the roof of the Buller home.
After graduation from Guardian Angels High School in 1962, Marlene worked as a secretary-receptionist at Prudential Life in Minneapolis for two years and also attended night school, then becoming a full time student at the University of Minnesota and obtaining her degree in education in 1967.
It was during the summer of 1965, at an off-campus party, that Cupid sent his arrow sailing across the dance floor.  When it hit Jerry, he asked Marlene to dance.
"Oh, could he dance!" recalled the smitten lady.  "He was an awful nice gentleman, and he was handsome.  He
asked me for a date for the next night already."
Said the other throbbing heart, "She was pretty, and she was a very good dancer.  There was a lot of rock and roll that night.  The next night I took her to C.C. Tap, a popular place in Minneapolis back then."
There was no formal proposal leading the young couple to the altar of wedded bliss.  Explained Jerry, "We just decided it was the right thing to do."
They were married at Guardian Angels Catholic Church on August 19^th, 1967, and spent their honeymoon at Niagara Falls, which was on their way to New York where Jerry had been working in electron physics."
Marlene got a job in New York as a first grade teacher.  Said she, "That was when, if you had a degree and could breathe, you could get a teaching job.  This was right before the baby boomers hit the job market."
The Bohns lived in Northport, Long Island, "which was a culture shock, let me tell you, for two Minnesota hicks!" said Marlene.  "I even had a little girl in my classroom ask me what foreign country I was from." 

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