In the 1920's they were born - Dad in 1925 and Mom in 1927 - in southwestern Minnesota where they also grew up, attended school, married, raised a family, and live to this day.  Dad was the middle of three sons born to Louis and Elizabeth Claeys.  Mom was the oldest of seven children born to Harold and Mary Opdahl.

During the 1930's my parents knew of each other because their families were country neighbors on the same gravel road out in Grandview Township.  They both attended the Catholic elementary school in nearby Ghent, the St. Eloi Catholic Church in Ghent, and the nearby high school in Minneota.
The parents, grandparents, and at least one great grandparent of my parents are buried in the St. Eloi Catholic Cemetery.  Ghent is a small town of Flemish heritage and its population doesn't fluctuate too far from 300.

In the 1940's my parents became better acquainted.  "We got acquainted when my dad asked the neighbors if they would exchange rides for school," said Mom.  "We'd pick up Joe's younger brother Jim and take him to St. Agnes School in Ghent.  Then Joe, who was going to be a junior, could pick up me and another neighbor girl three quarters of a mile south, to go to the Minneota High School.  We were only freshman and couldn't drive."
Mom remembers well those rides to high school with Dad.  "One of us always had to sit on the outside, being three in the car, so we took turns.  Ruthie got to sit in the middle going to school, and I got to sit in the middle going home.  After two years, Joe went to the service and, like they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder."
Dad remembers getting acquainted in another way:  "It was the summer of 1942.  Bet was 15.  I was 17.  We had been driving to school together for a year.  I was at a dance in Lynd.  Her Uncle John Jennen had brought Bet to the dance.  He was supposed to watch her.  I asked for a dance and then asked her out for intermission.  We got back into the dance sometime later.  Found out that Johnnie was worried when Bet was missing.  I'm still not over that night."
Dad graduated from high school in 1943 and then was off to the U.S. Navy and World War II.  He spent time on a ship in the Philippines toward the end of the War, while my mother stayed home and finished high school, graduating in 1945 and pining away for Dad.
On May 20^th, 1947, Joe Claeys and Betty Ann Opdahl tied the knot and it has remained tied and intact for six decades, one after the other.  Yes, they're celebra-ting sixty years of marriage.

During the 1950's, Mom and Dad raised crops and cattle and kids and learned how to get along.  Chores were done by hand, one shovel full after the other.  There were Hereford cattle (never cows), pigs, sheep, chickens. 
Work on the yard and in the home was also basically done by hand, but Mom appreciated her wringer washing machine, fine Electrolux, running water and inside facilities.  The aroma of fresh homemade bread greeted us after school at least once a week.  Cookies were never store bought either.  Neither were pickles or fruit sauce or chicken or tomatoes or beans and other good things.
In the early days of the marriage, what did they do for fun?  Said Mom, "We drove to the A&W in Marshall for five-cent root beer and we went on picnics with my folks and the friends to Dead Coon."  Dead Coon is the name of a nearby lake.  It's not far from Goose Lake.

In the 1960's, they raised more crops  and kids, stopped raising cattle, and hung on for dear life.  Sometimes it snowed so much in the winter we couldn't get out for days.  We didn't care, because people also couldn't get in!  Sometimes it rained so much in the summer that it caused flooding of the fields.  Everybody cared about flooding because the crops were like cash.  Sometimes it hailed hard and wiped out the crops that had grown up tall and green.  Sometimes there was time for replanting.  A perfect season from growing to harvest rarely happened.
Mom and Dad's last baby (Paul) was born in 1965, two days after their first baby (the editor) graduated from high school. 
Click here to continue the decades.