MARIETTA - After 70 years of marriage, Hal and Marian Shreiner say their life together has been one big adventure.

The couple, who live in WellStar's Atherton Place, have visited 50 different countries, lived in Europe, Africa and Asia, and co-founded the Shreiner Academy, a private school in Marietta.

"I tell you, being with her has been very easy," Hal said. "No, problem at all."

Hal and Marian's son, Dave, added, "I just think they enjoy each other's company. They were a military family and they moved all over the place. What worked so well is you don't have any choice to move, but mother always said, 'This is great, a new adventure.' The whole family was raised on the road."

Hal, 90, and Marian, 86, met at a dance on Valentine's Day in Lancaster, Pa., where Marian grew up. The couple married in Paradise, Pa., nine months later, on Oct. 5, 1940.

"We met at a dance," Hal said. "Where they had rounds - the men went one way and the women went the other way, facing each other. So when the music stopped, whoever's hand you had, that was the person you danced with."

"You were stuck," Marian said with a laugh.

"You were stuck with me," Hal replied, smiling.

Hal said he was first attracted to his wife's beauty. Marian said she was struck by how nice Hal was to her.

In their 70 years together, the couple was only separated for about a year and a half during World War II, when Hal went to China with the Flying Tigers, an American volunteer group for the Chinese Air Force. But during that time, Dave said his parents wrote a letter to each other every day.

While he was in China, Hal said his wife took over for him working in his family's florist business.

"We're good partners," he said.

In 1969, after moving all over the country and to several different continents, the couple and their three sons - Larry, Dave and Mark - settled in Cobb County. Hal got a job with Lockheed and moved the family to Marietta to a townhouse on Austell Road. The couple and their sons have remained in Cobb since.

Hal and Marian have eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

In 1980, the family founded Shreiner Academy on Terrell Mill Road. Dave said his mother had been running a preschool with several other partners when the Shreiners decided to branch out on their own and develop the academy, adding a grade level every year. The school teaches 172 children, from ages 2 to eighth grade, and is known for its small class sizes and family feel. The Shreiners sold the school in June 2008 to American Education Group based in Grand Rapids, Mich. As for their many years of travel, Hal said he and his wife have really enjoyed the life experience it has afforded them.

"Dad would say, we're moving, and mom would say, 'oh good,'" Dave said.