Sharing a passion for dancing and square dance music has been the key to Art and Hazel Johnston celebrating a long life together.
The Mount View Lodge residents will mark 70 years together as a married couple on Oct. 6. Both now 90 years old, the couple had two children—one has died— and have four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“We always did things together. Dancing and music was a big part of our life,” Art said, noting the couple played in a family orchestra, made up of his brothers and their wives for several years. Art played the accordion while Hazel played the clarinet in the group, known as the All Js.
“It's just in us. It's all in us. We have the rhythm and that just seems to be a release for it,” Art said. “That has made our lives complete.”
“And it was what we did together all the time. That was our entertainment,” Hazel added.
In addition to playing the accordion by ear, Art also played guitar, drums, piano and organ at one time or another, all without any sheet music.
The couple met at the Balfour Technical School in Saskatchewan while Art was taking an electrical course and Hazel was taking a secretarial course. Shortly after, Art joined the Air Force and was stationed Mossbank, Sask., where he spent three years as a mechanic at the facility that trained soldiers to fly bombing missions. After the war, the couple lived on a grain farm west of Regina until 1980, when they moved to the Saskatchewan capital and began calling and teaching square dancing. They did that for 17 years.
“Doing everything together is what's made it for us,” Art said.
The couple moved to Olds last year on Oct. 6 at the insistence of their daughter Joanne, who also lives in town. The couple's four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren all live between Penhold and Calgary.
“All of our grandchildren are here, so we thought it was a good idea. We never saw them before,” Art said.
Everyone is planning to attend a celebration on Oct. 6.
“It's been an interesting life. When we had our 50th (anniversary), we never thought we'd see 70,” Art said.
