LEWISTON – Gill Veilleux wasn’t interested in making music.

He agreed to go to one – and only one – practice of the Pine Tree Warriors Drum & Bugle Corps because his buddies convinced him it was a good way to meet girls from Lewiston.

He woke up early on the morning of the practice. He ironed his shirt and slicked back his hair. Then he and his friends hitched a ride from Lisbon to the parking lot of the Columbia Market on Lisbon Street where the corps gathered every Saturday.

Claire noticed him immediately.

The only female bugle player in the band, she walked over and introduced herself.

Gill wasn’t sure what to think. He was 16 and he had talked to girls before. But he had never met one so forward, so confident.

“I had gone to a few dances and hung out with girls before, but nothing serious,” he said. “Then this girl just walks right up and starts talking to me.”

Gill decided to let Claire lead the conversation.

She let him know that her family was also from Canada and that she was also Catholic. He let her know that he would be at the next practice.

“We just clicked,” Gill said, sitting next to Claire, his wife of 37 years, in the office of the flooring business they run together.

Gill and Claire never had an official first date. They got to know each other at the small club where the Pine Tree Warriors held dances every Friday night.

Most nights, they didn’t let go of each other until it was time to do the jitterbug.

“Our friends made so much fun of us,” Claire said, blushing. “They used to say it was like we were dancing on a dime.”

More than 40 years later, Gill, 58, and Claire, 57, have a home in Lisbon, a business in Lewiston and two grown sons. They’ve only split once, for about two months when they were still in high school.

Neither of them wanted to break up but Claire’s parents told her she was too young to be so serious with one boy. They both dated other people, but they continued to stare at each other at every practice, every dance.

Finally, Claire decided her parents were simply wrong.

In the middle of a practice, she walked up to Gill, she told him that it was a stupid idea to break up and she let him know that he was her boyfriend again.

Gill didn’t argue.