WAYNE – Susan Stevenson remembers the first time she went out with her future husband, Ford Stevenson.

It was 1976. She was director of the Ladd Recreation Center. As a member of the board that oversaw the center, he asked her to speak at a potluck dinner for newcomers.

“I said yes, but I didn’t know anybody and I didn’t want to go alone,” she said. “I conned him into going with me. Ironically, I wore a dress with strawberries on it.”

It wasn’t an official date, he said, “but it went from there.”

Three decades and three sons later, the two run Stevenson’s Strawberries on Berry Road, one of many pick-your-own strawberry farms now open for the season.

The farm generates other produce, but strawberries are the couple’s favorite.

“I grew up on a (Mars Hill) potato farm,” Susan said. “It’s a whole lot more fun to pick strawberries.”

After that dinner and as the two continued to see each other, they discovered they had much in common. Both came from large families and had parents who farmed or taught school. Ford was a science teacher at Leavitt Junior High School. Susan teaches English at Jay High School.

While they were dating he decided to give up teaching and farm full time.

She admired his spirit.

“The fact he was going to give up a secure job and jump into this was very romantic to me,” she said. He took her to walk the acres he would grow into the farm. “I thought it was beautiful.”

It was the 1970s, when many were shunning materialism and becoming more self-sufficient. “He had a big garden,” she said. “He did a lot of freezing. He had beef cattle, a pig. He’d hunt. It was neat.”

He liked her approval of what he was doing. And, “she was fun to be with.”

They celebrated their wedding on the farm on Oct. 5, 1977.

During the early years, she stayed home, raising their boys and helping him grow the farm. Those years were economically stressful, but fun, he said. He came to appreciate Susan’s knowledge and support.

“She understood that, yes, we were going on a picnic to the lake today, but there’s three days of rain coming and the hay needs cutting.”

Looking back, they talk about how important communication is, how it takes work to make a good marriage.

He describes his wife as friendly, outgoing “and very caring.”

She says he’s her best friend. When something happens, “I can’t wait to tell Ford. Things nobody else would get or understand or be excited about. He’s the only one who would really get it.”

Both are 57 and are enjoying their first grandchild. They look forward to more of their next chapter.

“I’m planning to retire from teaching in the next five or six years,” she said. “We talk about the things we’ll do.” They’ll still farm, but not as much.

“We’ll always do strawberries,” she said.

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