by Mandi Johnson

Sounder reporter

Without the aid of today’s technology, how did young couples keep in touch over distance in the late 1950s?

“Lots of talking on the phone,” Gael Shipstad says, as she smiles, looking at her husband Bob.

In June, they’ll have been married for 56 years, but they’ve been in each other’s lives  for much longer than that.

It was 1947 when the Shipstads first met. Both were nine years old and in 4th and 5th grades in Catholic School. Gael looks quizzically at Bob when she says their respective grade levels, stating he somehow skipped first grade. Bob shrugs and claims it’s because he’s just that smart.

It was during a grade school music recital when Bob knew Gael was “the one.” He had just finished performing what he described as the worst clarinet solo, ever, “more squeaks than notes,” he said, when Gael came onto the stage. She was singing with a group of other girls, yet Bob couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

“I’m think I’m going to marry her,” he said to the priest next to him. Gael, however, wasn’t as quick to realize her affections for Bob were so great.

As the Shipstads grew older, they were sent to separate schools, one for boys and one just for girls, but still they would make an effort to see each other at church each week.

When they were both 15, they began to date.

“I never dated anyone after 15 years of age,” she says, reflecting on when she knew Bob was the one for her.

For Gael, it helped their relationship greatly that Bob’s family was so supportive.

“He comes from a wonderful family,” she says. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Just before the two of them parted ways to attend college in different states, they got engaged. Bob went to school in Portland, Ore., and Gael in Pasadena, Calif. That was the first true test of their love, and where the phone calls became essential.

“He’d come home for Christmas and summer time,” Gael explained. But the rest of the time they spoke only by phone.

After they both completed college, they were married. They went on to have four children; three sons and a daughter. They moved to Orcas full-time in 1994.

How does a couple like the Shipstads make it to 56 years of marriage? The answer: lots of laughter.

“You have your cloudy days and your sunny days. You make it through the cloudy days with humor,” said Gael. She then told of a time when a friend asked her if she really thought Bob was as funny as she let on. “‘Do you laugh at everything he says?’ Yes, I actually do.”

“And I was gone a lot,” Bob interjected, laughing.

As the producer of “Sesame Street Live,” Bob was often traveling around the country with the show.

“Gael was a huge part of that by wearing the mom and dad hat, while I was doing my Radio City Music Hall in New York etc. etc. etc. And [she] did a great job of it,” he explained.

Gael also credits their faith in each other, and in God, as having kept them together all these years.

The Shipstads admit they were very lucky to meet each other, and acknowledge their love is a rarity.

“I was lucky enough to marry my sweetheart and best friend,” Bob said.

Added Gael: “It’s a blessing if you do find that. It’s a very special thing, that can happen.”