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Coofa Don't Get Angry Together Secret of Their.„ Marriage °When William John Cooke married his wife Clarissa, both added an additional problem to the marriage vows of their Anglican wedding ser- vice. --They made a mutual pact never to get mad simultane- ously. They never did. The result has been a half century of married life with- out a quarrel, recalls Mr. Cooke as he and his wife mark their golden wedding anniversary. It was a typically simple solution for unruffled togeth- erness. In fact, they've led a simple lifestyle, he says. • About the only other rule they found necessary was to be optimistic -- "always walk on the sunny side of the street." Retired for the p a s t 10 year, Mr. Cooke was we'll known in Bzlleville for three decades as owner of a Front St. bicycle and lock - and - key store. Both Cookes hail from Great Britain, met and married in Belleville where their families settled. Mr. Cooke w a s a m i 11- wright's apprentice in Wales when zhe family emigrated in 1913. He went to work for the old Springer Lock Company for 10 cents an hour, 10 hours a day. In 1915, with labor shortages caused by World War I he shifted to the Grand Trunk Railway roundhouse in Belle- ville, as a machinist, raising his wages, to 23 cents. A first-aid worker with St. John Ambulance, he became driver of the first motorized ambul- ance in the city, when the ve- hicle was purchased by local railroaders. In the interim, the Cookes had met and married -- on June 6 in St. Thomas Anglican Church. The event had an ex- tra dash of the auspicious. Mr. Cooke's sister Edith mar- ried simultaneously and par- ishioners said it was the first double wedding in the histary of the old Belleville church. The honeymoon trip to Nia- gara Falls took hours, the Cookes recall. Mr. Cooke had just bought a new car and travelling on the dirt high- ways of the day made little more than 23 miles an hour. In 1927 they moved briefly to Montreal when Mr. Cooke was promoted to a passenger locomotive inspector, but soon returned when he became ill. Back in Belleville he launch- ed the Front St. business that made him well known to many city residents, selling and re- pairing bicycles, locks and keys. Mr. Cooke retired from bus- iness in the early 1960s. Today the Cookes continue living quietly in their South , Park St. home -- the house in which they've lived for some 40 years and raised their family -- two sons, James and Charles, and a daughter, Madene. They continue to observe changes in lifestyles -- "some good, some not so good." Among the boons of contem- I porary living, says Mr. Cooke, \ is modern food - packaging 1 which has made cooking eas- ier, more convenient for fam- ilies particularly where both parents must work be- cause of high living costs. 1975