SECRETS OF SUCCESS

So what has been the secret of the success of 49 years of marriage for the genius and me? I would say it is a combination of things.

First of all, we would both admit that our marriage has had many rocky places in it, some worse than others. But here we are still chugging along and not doing too badly.

We do disagree a lot and argue over unimportant things. Case in point: We pull into a parking place and realizing I have plenty of room on my side, I swing the door open wide. He says, "Look out! You're going to hit that other car! Boy, that was close!"

I can't let it go as I answer, "I had plenty of room!" and proceed to show him when he comes around the car. He grumbles "Ok, ok."

As we are walking toward the store, I ask, "Do all old couples squabble like this?"

He answers, "I don't know, but we've been doing it all along."

Then I burst out laughing and he joins in and there are no hard feelings.

That -- laughter -- is one of the keys to our success -- we make each other laugh a lot, even though we always want to be right. For Fathers' Day I gave him a card that had a little plastic credit card inside that gives him one privilige to be "right." It cannot be used in the presence of others and it's only good for one time. I'm waiting for the time when he will pull it out, probably when he knows I'm absolutely correct about something.

We're fair about it when we are wrong, though. We frequently have to say to each other, "You know when you said 'such and such'? Well, you were right."

Another reason we have lasted is that although he is left brained and I am right (there's that word again!), we enjoy intellectual conversations. We took a test once and each one of us found that to be the most appealing trait about the other. That was years ago, but it's still true today.

So that's how the genius and I made it this far, but please, tell me how we'll tolerate each other once he retires!