Life With Ernie, Maud: It’s a Ball

--A Gilroy, Calif., couple are welcoming friends and four generations of descendants to celebrate one of the world’s longest marriages--80 years. Ernie Scott and his wife, Maud, wed on June 16, 1909, have three daughters, 16 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren and 34 great-great grandchildren. On their kitchen wall is a gift from a friend that reads: “Old Age Is Not for Sissies,” which fits their hardscrabble lives and illustrates the humor they say was important in their marriage. The couple lived in many states across America, sometimes separately as Ernie, now 101, moved on to new jobs. He farmed in South Dakota but “was dried out and . . . froze out” during the Dust Bowl, he says. He also had been an amateur boxer and proudly says: “I never was marked . . . . I think I could box a little yet.” Maud, now 97, was a member of the Coast Guard during World War II, serving on the Great Lakes. She says she reads voraciously and her happiest memories are when she was in school. Laughing, she explains: “I wasn’t married then.”

--Jack Yates Senior High School valedictorian Carrie Mae Dixon had feared that school officials would not let her give a graduation address because the unmarried 18-year-old has one child and is seven months pregnant with a second. But the officials decided there was no policy to prevent her from speaking, and she appeared before her 400 classmates in Houston. Dixon’s case drew attention in April when Principal Chester Smith barred as too personal a school newspaper article detailing Dixon’s first pregnancy and her moves to various relatives after her mother died and her stepfather abandoned the children. On stage with Dixon were other honor students, including her boyfriend, Mark Nealy, father of the baby she is carrying. He is a National Merit Scholar and vice president of the graduating class. Dixon has $17,500 in scholarships and plans to attend the University of Houston.

--It wasn’t the ship of state he was on, but Vice President Dan Quayle got a little official help to ensure smooth sailing. Quayle, wife Marilyn, and children Benjamin, Corinne and Tucker took a whitewater rafting trip down the New River in West Virginia--after the Army Corps of Engineers lowered the water level for them. The corps decreased the flow from Bluestone Dam, 40 miles upriver, to provide a safer, pleasant trip. Of course, three rafts of Secret Service agents also went along for the ride. “He’ll have a kinder, gentler ride,” quipped Susan Hanger, operator of a rafting business.