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Sixty Three Years Married And Still Dancing Sharing Memories With The Stevens

photo provided Married 63 years and going strong, meet Ron and Claire Stevens

photo provided Western Square Dancing has kept this couple young and as both love to say, " We are still dancing!"

photo provided Gathered all together for a previous wedding anniversary, the Stevens family celebrates life by getting together and yes, with some dancing!

photo provided While he retired from one career in the 1990's you can find Ron on his tractors rototiller, brush hogging and mowing lawns or working in his machine shop at his home.

Tuesday April 29, 2014

By Cookie Steponaitis

April 21st, 2014 marked a milestone for Ron and Claire Stevens. It was the sixty-third anniversary of their elopement and marriage and after four children, eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren later; the pair  still cannot understand what all the fuss is about. “When you called I said to Ron why would anyone want to read about us,” said Claire. “There must be a whole bunch of others married as long as we have been with exciting stories to tell.”  Spending time with the Stevens in their Cornwall home is not only delightful but showcases that indeed there are many wonderful stories to tell, interwoven into the theme of family, work and dancing and at eighty and eighty-two years young, this couple has much to offer the generations on their way up through life.
    Ron and Claire Stevens were born in Middlebury and Rutland in 1932 and 1933,respectively, and were both the oldest in a family of six children. Ron moved to the family farm when he was six years old and to this day owns property that has been known as the Stevens family farm since 1839. While growing up on the farm Ron helped out with chores each day and used a milking machine on the family’s twenty cows. He watched his grandfather use a team of horses and an old tractor to fill silos for people and attended Cornwall School #4, a one room school with fifteen classmates and remembered loving history.  Ron enjoys to this day sharing not only local history but some of his own family’s. Reading from his grandfather’s diary which begins in 1898 and goes until his death in 1946 Ron shares glimpses into Addison County life of the past. “Like every one of the time we had a big garden, pigs, milk and meat and were self-sufficient,” explained Ron. “My grandfather also worked as a vegetable gardener and would load a wagon of fresh vegetables and make the rounds to local towns and homes. In his diary he tells of planting for one season fifteen pounds of onion seeds, five hundred cabbage plants and sold cabbage for $3.00 a hundred pounds.  Knowing how small onion seeds are, planting fifteen pounds should give you a sense of just how much acreage he farmed.”
    Ron’s grandfather’s diary in addition to showcasing the life on the farm goes into great detail about the family cutting ice on Douglas Pond and taking the ice to cool milk and be used for other purposes. The family would also cut wood all winter in the Cornwall Swamp and when spring came a man would go through the area with a saw rig. “It was an old one cylinder engine and he would be here a couple of days,” added Ron, “because the family would have cut about ten cord and then there were the cedar posts for the fencing as well.”  Ron chuckled when asked to explain how he learned to be so conservative with things and not throw them away; chuckled again and referred to his grandfather’s diary. “Grandpa got his first car in 1914 and when it came time for a new one he didn’t trade. He took it apart, fixed each part and saved it, even the bolts. You never threw anything away.”
    While working filled his days Ron and many of his era filled their nights with dancing . Claire had been living with the Manchester family in town working for her board and room and got to school riding with Buzzy, Ron’s brother. But one evening Buzzy had football and it was Ron who picked up Claire and gave her the ride and that was just the beginning.  As a couple the pair loved to dance and square and round dances were common in that era. “We would go to Cove Point on Lake Dunmore or the Town Halls in New Haven, Whiting and Shoreham; all had dances. After the dance we would stop at Tops Restaurant too,” laughed Claire. “It was the only place open at two in the morning and it was so much fun.”
    Claire was raised in Bridport originally by her grandmother, attended a one room school across the street from her house and loved English and spelling. Her teacher Kathleen Racette was determined to stop Claire from being left handed and often used a ruler to slap her hand and make her write with the right. “It was pretty rough,” explained Claire. “At my grandmother's we had no electricity and we had to go get water.  I remember my mother starching our dresses. We were always neat and presentable but we didn’t have much. But then again neither did anyone else.”
    Ron and Claire were married in 1951, lived on the family farm for a couple of years and then moved in to Middlebury and eventually back to the farm. They had four children Mickey, Gary, David and Gale and both worked outside of the home as well as raising four children. Joined by a love of each other and family the pair even found time to  step out with their dancing. While both can square dance to this day the pair also became involved in Western Style Square Dancing in the early 1970’s and joined dance clubs including Vergennes Small City Steppers and Cast Off 8’s and in 2014 the pair is still dancing and loving every call. “It is wonderful,” commented Ron, “because you can dance all over the world. There is even western style dancing in Japan and the calling is done in English.” Claire shared enthusiastically, “Square dancers are just the best people in the world and there is no end to what you can do. You start with the basics, which are eighty-ninety different calls and then you work up through levels like plus dancer, advanced and challenging. Every weekend there is a dance somewhere in the area. We have danced in New York State, Massachusetts , Maine and Connecticut.
    While Ron and Claire both technically retired from careers that spanned forty plus years in the late 1990’s both are still hard at work today. Ron worked for the milk plant, Waite’s Funeral Home and also had a thirty year career as a machine operator and machinist with Polymer’s Plastic. Ron learned all of his skills on the job and has his own machine shop at his home and a side business roto tilling, brush hogging and mowing. Ron is never one to sit still and works with his tractors, tends to his acreage and home, bowls competitively two days a week and still has time to dance with his lady of sixty three years. Claire worked at home, spent six years with Margaret Rother in photography and fourteen years at Porter Hospital as the Porter Hospital Volunteer Director. “You just should never retire,” expressed Claire. “I loved my job and had two hundred dedicated volunteers working with me. Some of them are still there.”
Ron burst out laughing when asked to share with readers the secrets to longevity in married life and said with a smile, “Lots of patience and talk about things.”  Claire grinned and added, “Keep working and keep dancing. The two seem to go well together.”
    When the interview concluded and requests for photos were made Ron and Claire stood together,  as they did sixty three years ago and again expressed wonder at anyone wanting to read about their story. As Ron went outside to talk with the roofers at work on the house, Claire shook hands and whispered to this reporter with a smile on her face, “I got a good man, didn’t I!” Yes Claire you did and it is apparent he got a good wife too. Congratulations from the Valley Voice and to all of our readers take a little advice from this pair and keep right on working and keep on dancing.

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