For 70 years Joan and Gordon Ireland have enjoyed wedded bliss.
The former 100 Mile House residents are celebrating their 70th anniversary on Feb. 15 in Keremeos. While they haven’t lived in the area since 1990, some of their fondest memories together were made in the South Cariboo.
Joan and Gordon first met at a dance in Lloydminster, the city on the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The two hit it off and decided to get married a year after that first dance.
They had planned to tie the knot on Valentine’s Day, but back then you couldn’t get married on a Sunday, which is when Valentine’s Day happened to fall in 1954. Instead, they moved the date to Feb. 15 though their wedding troubles weren’t quite done.
“We both lived in the Saskatchewan side of Lloydminster and got a marriage license for Saskatchewan. Two or three days before the wedding the preacher said “we can’t marry you in the church, it’s in Alberta,” Gordon recalled.
The Irelands once more pivoted and held the ceremony instead in the house of Joan’s sister. With a laugh, they said it wasn’t the marriage they’d imagined but was still enjoyable.
“It was cold and bright and sunny that day. It was family only but not all the family because they couldn’t all fit in the house, of course,” Joan recalled. “Our honeymoon was to Edmonton on the Greyhound bus.”
After their marriage, the two chose to move out to B.C. in 1955 with their eldest son Nelson to look for work, settling first in Penticton before moving to Vancouver where Gordon did a five-year apprenticeship as a machinist. By that time they had another two children, Preston and Deborah, and two years after Gordon’s apprenticeship was over, Joan said they decided they didn’t want to raise their family in the Lower Mainland.
Placing a map of Canada on the kitchen table, Joan shut her eyes and pointed at the map to decide where they would go. With a wry chuckle, Gordon recalled that she pointed to the North Bonaparte but there was nothing there. The closest town to her finger was 100 Mile House.
“We went as far as Prince George looking for a place and looking for work and we found a cabin at 94 Mile and it was for sale. We decided to buy it because even if we couldn’t move we’d at least have a cabin we could come to in the summertime,” Joan said. “We went back to the Coast and right away Gordon got work in 100 Mile, so we moved into that cabin.”
Back then 100 Mile House was a different place. Joan recalled it was the type of town where you left the door unlocked and kept a cup of coffee on for anyone who might come by, whether you were home or out and about.
The Irelands took to the Cariboo lifestyle readily and both got involved with the community. Gordon founded Exco Manufacturing in 1969, now known as Exco Industries, while Joan became a music teacher and began teaching piano lessons. Together they watched 100 Mile House and the surrounding area grow in size as 100 Mile House was incorporated into a village, the 108 Mile Ranch was developed by the Block Brothers and Deka Lake was subdivided.
Gordon did his part in helping the community grow as one of several community members who volunteered money and time to build the Stan Halcro Arena, to replace the old outdoor skating rink where the Save-On-Foods parking lot is today. Joan said they supported it because their youngest son, Preston, wanted to play hockey.
“We got it completed in time to play hockey in for a few years before we left,” Gordon said.
At the same time, Joan helped found the 100 Mile Festival of the Arts with Joan Law in 1977, then known as the 100 Mile Festival and Ogden Festival. By then Joan had several students and the only way they could compete was if they travelled to Kamloops or Williams Lake. With her students and Law’s combined, they had enough to make organizing a festival in 100 Mile House feasible.
“It was strictly piano at that point and a couple of years later I added tap dance because I was teaching that too,” Joan remarked. “Later, I hired a highland dance teacher and that just mushroomed. I’m so glad they’ve kept the festival going. It’s grown so big, it looks like.”
After retiring the Irelands took to the road travelling across Canada twice, doing several road trips to the United States and riding a freighter to Australia in 2000 where they backpacked across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Even after they returned to B.C. they chose to move to a new community every five years to make new friends.
“Life is an adventure, (you should) live it to the fullest,” Joan remarked.
When asked what the secret to the success of their marriage is, Gordon joked it was learning to do what he was told, much to the outraged amusement of Joan. On a more serious note, she said a relationship is built upon supporting one another’s endeavours. Her music studio only got off the ground with his support while he countered that Exco only happened thanks to her working as a bookkeeper in between piano lessons.
“Share and listen to what’s going on with your partner. Share your thoughts and everything,” Joan advised.
