Couple met as kids on trike
MUDDY CREEK TWP — When Clarence Dietrich first met his wife, Emma, he gave her a ride on the back of a tricycle.
Dietrich was visiting his uncle in Meridian, where Emma, a toddler, lived nearby.
"(His uncle) had a garage with a cement floor," said the former Emma McCall.
"I stood on the back of it and he pedaled me around."
When Emma was 10 or 12, she happened into Clarence at a different home. The residence, also in Meridian, belonged to another of Clarence's relatives.
"Oh yes. I remember her very well," Clarence recalled of that meeting. "I liked her very much."
Still too young for dating, the couple forgot each other until a third introduction, which occurred during Emma's late teens when Clarence was working at his family's well-drilling company.
Emma was walking to a friend's near Evans City and caught Clarence's eye.
"I spoke to her. She spoke to me," Clarence recalled.
"I said (to the man assisting me) 'Who is that girl?' He said, 'That's my sister.'
"I told my brother Carl 'I'm going to marry that girl if she'll have me' right then and there," Clarence said.
After securing directions to Emma's house, Clarence began visiting regularly. That was in September 1950.
"I thought he was just another young, punky man," Emma recalled. "He just kept hanging around."
The Dietrichs got engaged that December at the Penn Theater in Butler. Emma accepted the ring with the stipulation they get married in June so she could be a June bride."You know how Pap puts things off?" she said recently to her granddaughter Nicole Reep of Harmony. "(We got married) June 30, 1951."The wedding took place in a Presbyterian church in Ford City. Afterward, they ate at the Hot Dog Shoppe in Butler.Since that time, Emma's wedding band has thinned and narrowed, now resembling a strand of thread. But the couple says their love has taken the opposite route, expanding and strengthening over time.They attribute their happy relationship in part to cooperation and sharing, often taking turns choosing how to spend free time on weekends. Pastimes they both enjoyed included visiting Florida in winter months and taking trips on their Honda motorcycle, having graduated from earlier days on the trike."(And) because we loved each other," Emma added.In recent years, Clarence developed health problems, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive disease that interferes with breathing.Since that time, they stay closer to home. But the couple says they cherish that time."She was everything I wanted in a woman. She was beautiful to me, and she still is," Clarence said."The beauty of a man is his woman: She's my beauty," he added."All the neighbors said 'That marriage isn't going to last,'" Emma joked. "I don't know if it's going to last. We'll wait and see."The Dietrichs have five children, Doris Burd of Muddy Creek Township, Kathy Salkeld of Clearfield Township, Marian Sanders of Center Township, Shirleen Fishel of Florida and Clarence "Sonny" Dietrich of Muddy Creek Township. They also have four grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
