NEW SCOTLAND — Jake and Arlene Herzog had a low-key 60th wedding anniversary celebration with family members during the last week in March. They were married in the New Scotland Presbyterian Church on March  25, 1961.

Arlene first met Jake when her parents, Andrew and Dorothy Carr, built a house on Bullock Road in 1953. Jake was at the home of his grandparents, Dr. Arthur and Madelon Pound, across the road.  Both lived on Bullock Road as teenagers and continue to live there on his grandfather’s farm.

Soon after their marriage, they bought their home, farmland, and outbuildings from Jake’s grandfather. Over the years, they built two other additions to the house (removing the addition Dr. Pound had used as an office to write in or escape a house full of women), and built a third addition around the original house. 

Jake reclaimed the farmland and grew hay for the horses that his mother, sisters, and wife kept, and raised cows and pigs to feed the family. Jake continues to farm, putting up a few thousand hay bales annually using antique tractors he restored.

Jake and Arlene started Petrochem Mechanical Services in 1979, specializing in bulk petroleum facility construction and maintenance, retiring in 1999. Arlene continues to stay busy as the secretary/treasurer of the New Scotland Cemetery Association, working as deputy tax collector for the town of New Scotland, and being involved in the Capital Region Women’s Network. Jake does some welding and machine work in the farm shop, maintains his motorcycles, and drives part-time for Stanton Farms. He also travels as much as possible by motorcycle, and competes in Moto Giro events with small vintage machines.

American Gothic: Arlene and Jake Herzog.

When they were younger, Arlene bravely rode on the back of motorcycles with Jake as far as West Virginia, and through all of the New England states and eastern Canadian provinces including Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as on a two-week tour of southern New Zealand.

Secrets to having a good marriage? Jake says having a good sense of humor, enjoying work, good food, family and friends, and having a wife who puts up with her husband’s foolishness. Arlene says it’s being flexible — life is always changing. Enjoy your children, husband, home, pets, and the jobs you’ve decided to do. 

Their son Jake III recently passed away. Their daughter, Lynn, and her husband, Tom Bragan, and grandchildren, Elena and Lucas, live in Arlington, Virginia. Their son Ed and his wife, Sarah, live in New Scotland on part of the original family farm.