Before longtime Avalon residents John and Joan Mackie came to Catalina to work for Bill Wrigley, they grew up in Scotland, where they met as teenagers at the local dance hall.
That was more than half a century ago and on Saturday, April 27, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
“Back then in the old days all us young folks would go ballroom dancing,” John Mackie said. “We would all go stag to the big dance hall where they would have a 20-piece big band. That is where I met Joan.”
Before longtime Avalon residents John and Joan Mackie came to Catalina to work for Bill Wrigley, they grew up in Scotland, where they met as teenagers at the local dance hall.
That was more than half a century ago and on Saturday, April 27, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
“Back then in the old days all us young folks would go ballroom dancing,” John Mackie said. “We would all go stag to the big dance hall where they would have a 20-piece big band. That is where I met Joan.”
If there was one thing the young John Mackie had going for him in his pursuit of Joan, it was his “happy feet.” He was a good dancer, and not just ballroom style.
“I was also a jitterbugger,” Mackie said. “I was the jitterbug champion of the Scottish lowlands when I was 16.”
John was 19 and Joan was 17 when they met and had their first dance together.
Shortly after that first meeting, John was drafted into the Royal Navy.
“It was a short courtship at first,” he said. “I went in the Royal Navy for three years for Her Majesty. When I came out, Joan was already here in the United States. She came over when she was 18. She was doing domestic work for a doctor and taking care of him, his wife and kids. When I got out of the Navy, she decided to come back to Scotland and we hooked up again.”
John liked the Navy and considered signing up for another year.
“She changed my mind,” he said with a wry giggle.
They were married and decided they both had an itch to see more of the world than their Scottish homeland, where unemployment was very high at the time.
“I wanted to go to Australia, but she did not like that idea,” John said. “I suggested New Zealand and she said she did not want to be that far away from her mother. So she said ‘why don’t we go to America’ and I said ‘yes.’”
They made landfall at Long Island, New York. John went to work as a mechanical engineer for Chrysler in Detroit and then worked for Ford Motor Corp. in Europe.
“But … I just could not get along with those mad dog Englishmen, so we came back to the states and decided to try California.”
John switched career gears and went into business for himself painting and decorating homes and they eventually made their way out to Whittier, California. However, the freeways and crowds were a little daunting for the Mackies.
Then their golden opportunity appeared in the form of Bill Wrigley, who offered them a job on Catalina.
“My wife saw an advertisement and replied to it,” John said. “We had our interview with them and they offered us the job, with all their expenses paid to make the move to Catalina.”
John Mackie said they did various jobs for the Wrigleys—some of which is still classified for the next four or five years he said with a bemused air of mystery.
He said for one aspect of his work he carried a gun for some time, but he would not elaborate on why.
They took care of the family at first and then worked in other positions such as taking care of things at Rancho Escondido. They also raised three sons and have five grandsons who came and visited them on Catalina.
The Mackies worked for the Wrigleys for about 20 years before retiring.
Now 72 and 79 respectively, they continue living on the Island where John said they are comfortable and reminded of where they came from in Scotland. “We like being near the water,’ John said.
He also offered some advice for how to sustain a long marriage.“We always worked on a 50/50 basis that is really more like 70 percent her way and 30 percent my way, but that is what works. And don’t talk back and learn to say yes.”
John said that after all their years together, Joan still makes his heart beat faster, especially if they are near the sound of music.
“Who yeah, when I hear music I just want to jump up and dance,” he said. “Once a dancer, always a dancer.”
For their anniversary, the Mackies said they are heading to Las Vegas, were one of their sons lives and where they will celebrate the occasion with their family.
