Dick Wolter had seen Joyce Slereth before that night at the gas station.
She was just in high school. He was just out of high school.
When he saw her out with a group one evening, he got out of his car.
“He came over to the car and said, ‘I’m gonna call you,’” Joyce Wolter said.
She told him that would be all right. When Dick walked away, Joyce turned to a friend sitting next to her in the car.
“Who was that?” Joyce asked.
Dick and Joyce Wolter of Sultan will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with a casual open house from 2 to 6 p.m. Feb. 18 in the banquet room at the Dutch Cup Restaurant in Sultan.
The couple were married Feb. 10, 1956, in Sultan.
Dick did call Joyce after that first meeting.
“He was good-looking,” she said. “And had a real nice car.”
Joyce said she and Dick didn’t have much in common to begin with. There wasn’t much to do on dates in Sultan during the 1950s. Sometimes they would go to a movie in Monroe. Other times they’d just drive around.
When the time came, Dick gave Joyce an engagement ring on her birthday, Oct. 6. The couple got married four months later. They were in Dick’s car when he proposed.
Dick didn’t have to ask Joyce’s mother for permission to marry her daughter.
“He was already a fixture of the family,” Joyce said.
They both attended Sultan High School. Dick was born in town, and the couple have lived in Sultan all their lives, except for a few months in Renton.
“We came home every weekend,” Joyce said of those six months.
Dick was a logger and Joyce worked at GTE/Verizon for more than 26 years. She now works in a small office in Monroe.
Joyce and Dick have five children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
For more than 20 years, Joyce has been involved in belly dancing; she is known as Jalyila. She teaches belly dancing in Everett and Monroe and is the director of Daughters of the Wind, a belly dance troupe.
Dick enjoys working on the Sultan farm where the couple live.
“We like the outdoors,” Joyce said. “He always takes care of the five and a half acres, and I have my fish pond.”
The couple like to travel and have spent a lot of time in Canada.
Joyce said couples starting out and hoping to reach 50 years of marriage need good luck and must work hard.
Dick and Joyce’s 50-year marriage has lasted because of humor and stubbornness.
“He’s been a great father to his kids,” Joyce said. “A very hard worker, very stable.”
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