huh

Jean Baker and Sharon Colter’s romance started 50 years ago in a Toronto parking lot, and it’s still going strong in a small house in Winnipeg’s Minto neighbourhood.

In 1966, Baker was 26 years old, a single mom to two toddlers, and it was her first time visiting a gay bar.

“I sat at the bar for over an hour and a half. Nobody said hi to me. I felt really annihilated,” said Baker, now 76 years old. “I backed my car out of the parking lot and was heading out of the street, and I saw this lady, who was walking like John Wayne — she has this big stride on her — and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll ask her where girls meet.’”

But Baker got cold feet and ended up circling the lot three times to try to come up with something to say.

“I never did any pick-up lines in my life. I was always on the receiving end of pick-up lines,” said Baker. “I rolled down the window … I said, ‘Wanna go for a ride and raise a little hell?’ I don’t know where that came from. It was just right off the top of my head.’”

With a little coaxing, Colter agreed, and 50 years later the pair are great-grandmothers living in Winnipeg.

“It’s been an adventure, and it’s still an adventure,” said Colter.