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Jim Watkins remembers when he proposed marriage to his wife, Mickey, like it was yesterday.

“We were standing under an apple tree in my Uncle Bill’s orchard in the fall of ’37,” he said.

The Kentucky natives were married a few months later — June 25, 1938 — in Madisonville, Ky.

Still chipper after nearly 71 years of marriage, Mickey Watkins is 89 and Jim Watkins is 88.

Now living at The Stratford, an independent-living retirement community in High Point, the Watkinses will join eight other couples who live at The Stratford at 3 p.m. today in repeating their wedding vows of long ago.

The Rev. David Galloway, pastor of Deep River Church of Christ, will officiate at the ceremony.

Standing will not be required for all of the brides and grooms. That concession is made out of respect to one’s elders. Many taking the vows are in their 80s.

And those who may not be able to repeat all of the words of the vows will be forgiven.

The nine couples have been married a total of 583 years, almost an average of 65 years per couple. The Stratford held a similar ceremony five years ago for seven couples who had a total of 344 years. None of those couples still live at The Stratford, said Susan Wilson, enrichment coordinator at the retirement community.

It was Brown Williams’ love for baseball and basketball that led to his making Helen Loftin his bride on April 25, 1943.

Williams, 6 feet 2 inches tall and 190 pounds, was an outstanding athlete when he graduated from high school back when only 11 years of school were necessary for a diploma. As good luck would have it, he was invited back to school in his native Thomasville to get more education and, of course, bolster the ball teams, too.

“I was the one who asked him for the first date,” Helen Loftin Williams said. “All of us girls had to invite someone on the football team to this event — whatever it was. Some of the girls already had boyfriends on the team, and the rest of us had to pick from what was left,” she said.

It became a lasting relationship, and she followed him hither and yon as he was transferred during his 31-year career as a state highway patrolman.

Brown Williams, 86, and Helen Williams, 85, have some health issues but remain devoted to each other. “He tells me every day — even more than once — that he loves me,” she said.

Tom and Carmella Martin were married 66 years ago in Pittsfield, Mass. The Martins, now 88, met when they were only 14, and were married March 1, 1943.

The Martins spent 30 years in Florida before moving here in late 2007. Retired from management at General Electric, Tom Martin also is retired from 38 years as a professional drummer, traveling in several states with dance bands. He also played on local radio and TV stations for several years.

Two Piedmont couples — Pete and Blanche Alley and Mavis and Charles Causby — have been married for 67 years. The Alleys were married Dec. 27, 1941, in Summerfield, not far from where Blanche Alley grew up in Greensboro. Pete Alley, a career conductor with Southern Railway, hailed from Mayodan.

When proposing, Pete Alley told his future wife: “The preacher will ask you if you take each other for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, until death do you part.”

She said, “That’s OK with me.” The Causbys were married Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942, at Green Street Baptist Church in High Point. They met at a birthday party in 1941.

“On Christmas Day 1941, I kissed her and put a ring on her left hand. She kissed me and said 'yes,’’’ Charles Causby said. He spent his career with Old Dominion Freight Line, and she worked as secretary to the president at Oakdale Cotton Mill.

Other residents of The Strat­ford participating in the ceremony:

* Glenn and Mary Lou Byrd, married 61 years, are originally from Marion, Va. He is a retired pastor, and his wife is a retired music director. Glenn Byrd, parked with Mary Lou in front of her parents’ house, made his proposal a bit different, more like a suggestion: “Let’s just get married,” he said.

And his soon-to-be bride said, “OK.” They were married Oct. 25, 1947, at their pastor’s home.

* Lloyd and Clara Haines, married 60 years, hail from Maine. His career was spent with the U.S. Forestry Service, and she worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

Clara Haines said, “We picked out the engagement ring and I didn’t know when I was going to get it. We went down to one of our favorite places — Cape Neddick “Nubble” Lighthouse (on rocky Nubble Island, York, Maine), and he gave me the ring on my birthday, Aug. 27.”

They were married on Christmas Day 1948.

* Jim and Bertha McGee, who met while students at High Point Central High School, soon will have been married 58 years, taking their vows at Calvary United Methodist Church, High Point, on Aug. 18, 1951.

Jim McGee’s proposal was straight from the story book. He got down on one knee in Bertha’s living room with ring in hand. He didn’t even have to pop the question. “We both knew the answer,” she said.

They also took a traditional North Carolina honeymoon, with the first stop at the Robert E. Lee Hotel in Winston-Salem, then the Washington Hotel in Boone, and a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway and to Linville Falls, Asheville and Lake Lure.

Jim McGee was a chemist and furniture finishing manager, and Bertha McGee taught kindergarten.

* Dr. Irby Dawson and his wife, Ina, will mark 57 years of marriage on June 28, having married in 1952. Both grew up in North Carolina, with him becoming a dentist and his wife a dental hygienist.

“Irby was in dental school, and in his spare time, he got a job painting a church,” Ina Dawson said. “The money he earned he used to buy me a diamond. There was a church near my house, and he drove to the graveyard and gave me my ring. He said no one would bother us there. Then we went to my house and told my parents the good news.”

Three couples who don’t live at The Stratford also will renew their vows during the service: Mel and Julia Davis, married 31 years; Ron and Brenda Johnson, married 29 years; and Tommy and Susan Wilson, married 20 years.

Mel Davis is manager of The Stratford, Ron Johnson is the community center’s bus driver, and Susan Wilson is the center’s enrichment coordinator.

Brown Williams said the renewal of vows gives his wife a chance to leave if she wants to. “But I don’t think she is going anywhere after 66 years,” he said.

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com