Bill & Dolly

I stopped by Ken Broda's Tidally Didally's sandwich and pizza shop, as I often do, and ran into the young couple pictured here, Bill and Dolly Siegfried of Desert Aire. Ken introduced me to them.

"Oh, so you're the famous Mr. Escobar," Dolly said sweetly.

Sounded a lot better than the many other things I've been called. But I had to admit I wasn't the famous Mr. Escobar. They shot him dead in Colombia.

Bill and Dolly had a table near mine. So we started up a conversation people of the senior persuasion have. You know, "Back in my day. . ."

What was cool about Bill and Dolly was that 88 and 86 they still act like kids. They've been married 68 years, but they've been sweethearts for 70.

"We celebrate every day," Dolly said.

Bill and Dolly celebrate their long marriage, their love for each other and the fact they still wake up every morning. From their stout, spry appearances, they still have countless mornings to come.

I guessed that Bill and Dolly were retired, and they are, Bill from a civil service job with the Navy at Keyport Torpedo Base.

Dolly just looked me until I finally said: And you?

"Oh, I'm a retired house wife," she said laughing heartily.

Housewives never retire, I said. They're like the pope.

A few days later she said: "That's the best thing I ever heard a man say."

Well, I do know about house keeping. There were four of us brothers, and dad made sure we learned to do dishes, sweep and mop floors and cook.

"I don't want you to ever depend on a woman taking care of you," he said.

Bill was born in Burien in 1926. Dolly was born in St. Paul, Minnesota two years later. They met at Highline High School after Dolly showed up for her sophomore year.

"Times were hard," she said. "You couldn't find a job in Minnesota. Dad found a job in Burien, and we moved."

It was love at first sight for Bill and Dolly, but any notion of marriage had to wait. Bill went off to the Navy right after graduation in 1944. Dolly promised to write.

Dolly wrote to Bill every day. Bill wrote back almost every day. Dolly saved all of Bill's letters. Bill, well, he didn't.

Dolly knew there was a risk that Bill would see combat in the Pacific, but she didn't think on it a lot. She was busy finishing high school and being a yell queen.

When Bill showed his buddies pictures of Dolly, they understood why she was a yell queen. They complimented him in the jargon only sailors use.

Bill was in the Navy Air Corps. He trained to be a tail gunner, and he was anxious to get into World War II and test his readiness. But the war ended before he could be called, and that was all right, too.

"We (Bill and his buddies) celebrated," he said. "We even got to eat the kind of food the officers were eating all along."

Bill was released by the Navy in 1946. He and Dolly married that same year, and they settled down in Burien. Dolly worked one year as a licensed practical nurse. Otherwise she dedicated herself to the home and five children.

Bill retired from his civil service post in 1987. Dolly retired also - sort of - and they became snowbirds, living in Palm Desert, Calif. during winter and Chimacum in summer for 16 years.

When it was time to settle down again, three and a half years ago, Bill and Dolly moved to Desert Aire. Their daughter Suzi and her husband Karl Gruber moved there two years later. Soon a son will move in across the street.

Dolly is excited. One more thing to celebrate.