Married for 68 years, Ted and Gerrie Green pose together in their Parkland Village home. Both turn 90 this summer.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Ted and Gerrie Green on their wedding day, June 19, 1941. With them are Ted’s brother and one of Gerrie’s friends.
Submitted photo

Ted and Gerrie Green pose for a photo back in 1976, right after Ted retired from 33 years with the Oregon State Police.
Submitted photo

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Ted Green has a clear memory of the first time he saw his future wife.

“My nephew and I were out driving in Whittier, Calif., and we saw two young ladies dressed to kill, high heels and hair fixed all nice, running for the bus,” he said, thinking back to 1940. “So we stopped an offered them a ride.”

It turned out Gerrie and her cousin were on their way to the theater. Although Ted had a car, he didn’t have enough cash for a movie ticket, so he waited outside until the show was over.

Then he and his nephew squired the girls to a drive-in for a snack. Ted picked Gerrie as the one he wanted to get to know better.

“She was from Nebraska and her dad had told her not to talk to any strangers when she got to California. But I guess I was the only boy she knew,” he said.

He’s glad of that: “She’s a great gal,” he said on the cusp of their 68th wedding anniversary. “She puts up with me.”

Ted grew up in Newberg and started college at Oregon College of Education, where his primary interest was playing football. But he left school to follow his mother and brother to Southern California when they moved south looking for work.

“Either I got homesick for my family or I just wanted to see California. I’m not sure which,” he said.

Meeting Gerrie was a lucky bonus. They married the following year, June 29, 1941, asking the Nazarene pastor who lived next door to perform the ceremony.

Then Ted, who was strong enough for sports but couldn’t pass the military medical exam, went to work in a machine shop making precision tools and jigs for an airplane factory. But by 1943, he said, “I’d had enough of the LA area,” so he decided to return to Oregon.

At first, Gerrie planned to stay on at her job with Goodyear until he found them work and a place to live, but at the last minute she changed her mind. They came north together — just as they’ve traveled together ever since.

He worked for the Portland shipyards briefly, but he didn’t like it. Then he drove over to Salem and applied for a job with the Oregon State Police. His brother, who was five years older, eventually joined as well.

Today, the state police puts new troopers through extensive training. But in 1943, the training was brief.

“I spent about half a day with the sergeant going over the traffic code, then went out on the road with one of the old-timers,” Ted recalled. “When one of the patrolmen got sick, they put me on the road in his place and told me just to give out warnings.”

The Greens lived in Tillamook for 19 years as he worked up and down Highway 101 and on Highway 18 and other roads leading to the valley. After work, he coached his son’s youth sports teams and played on the local fast-pitch team himself.

Gerrie, a proofreader for the local newspaper, was happy to go along to the games. Often she turned their 14-foot trailer into a mobile concession stand, selling hot dogs and hamburgers to hungry sports fans.

In 1962, the family moved to McMinnville. OSP had started a criminal division, and Ted was now an investigator working on all sorts of cases, from bank robberies to homicides.

“It was interesting work, altogether different than it is now,” he said. “We didn’t have to put up with people on drugs, and everyone packed a gun.”

On the other hand, he said, many things about police work have changed for the better — training and equipment have improved.

After retiring in 1976, Ted started helping a friend in his wood stove business. Soon he was a factory representative for the stove company, traveling all over the country selling stoves. His territory included Alaska — a real coup for someone in the home heating business.

Wherever he traveled with the stove job, Gerrie went, too. “That made it a lot more enjoyable,” he said.

On the job or on their own, the Greens traveled all over the United States and to several other countries. They visited the British Isles and took time to look up relatives, for instance. They often traveled in tandem with Joe Dancer and his wife, with whom they were business partners in a McMinnville trailer park.

When they went by motor home, they always took bird feeders along. The bird-loving Greens would hang the feeders up wherever they stopped.

In addition to traveling by car and motor home, they tried cruising with a two-week trip through the Panama Canal. Then they booked a 62-day cruise of the Far East, visiting a number of countries with their son and daughter-in-law.

Spending more than two months on a cruise ship was fun because of all the different side trips to explore different cultures, he said. For instance, in China they left the ship and went to see the Great Wall.

“You’d think that wall was impossible to build, but there it was,” Ted said.

At home in Oregon, both have always been involved in church — another thing that kept them close, Ted said. The Greens now attend Dayton Christian Church. Gerrie is especially fond of hymn singing.

They also share a love of sports, especially Linfield College football. Gerrie can’t attend games anymore, but Ted still loves to watch the action from a 50-yard-line seat in Memorial Stadium.

In 2004, when the Wildcats won their most recent national championship, the Greens drove across the country to attend some of the playoff games, stopping to visit relatives en route. Then they flew to the championship game in Virginia.

“Sports have always been very important to me. I played football, baseball and basketball,” he said.

The Greens moved to Parkland Village retirement community five years ago. Last year, they moved into the assisted living facility there, hanging several birdfeeders outside their new windows.

They both turn 90 this summer — Ted on June 9, and Gerrie on July 8. To celebrate, their daughter and son brought them almost-matching hats. “Kiss Me, I’m Sweet,” Gerrie’s says. “Kiss Me, I’m 90,” says Ted’s.

“It’s working,” he said. “Someone brought me a big bag of Hershey’s Kisses.”

Gerrie doesn’t get around well anymore, but wherever she goes, Ted is by her side.

“She took care of me for the first 60 years. Now it’s my turn,” he said.

Starla Pointer, who is convinced everyone has an interesting story to tell, has been writing the weekly “Stopping By” column since 1996. She’s always looking for suggestions. Contact her at 503-883-6263 or spointer @newsregister.com.