On Sunday, the Oscar-winning director celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first date with Cheryl, and showed-off the sweet gifts they got for each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cNov 1 1970 Cheryl & I went on our 1st date. We went to see a re-release of Stanley Kramer\u2019s\u00a0It\u2019s a Mad Mad Mad World<\/em>\u00a0and then got some pizza at now defunct Barnone\u2019s in Toluca Lake. Quite a start, right?\u201d Howard shared with his fans on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cToday we are celebrating with these kind of socks we ordered (Cheryl\u2019s w\/my mug got held up) and a trip to our local take-out pizza place,\u201d he added, sharing a photo of socks with Cheryl\u2019s face on them. \u201cWe\u2019ll be driving in the same \u201870 VW Bug I picked Cheryl up in 5 decades ago. It runs great. So do we.\u201d<\/p>\n After dating for five years, Ron and Cheryl tied the knot on June 7, 1975, and went on to have four children together: daughters Bryce Dallas Howard, twins Jocelyn Carlyle and Paige Howard and son Reed Cross.<\/p>\n In 2019, Howard opened up to PEOPLE about\u00a0the instant connection\u00a0he felt when he met Cheryl as a junior at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California. \u201cI met her, and there was never anybody else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Globe Photos\/REX\/Shutterstock\u00a0<\/em>Ron and Cheryl Howard on their wedding day in 1975.<\/p>\n The filmmaker added that the secret to their long-lasting marriage is \u201ccommunication.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say, \u2018How\u2019d you do it?\u2019 There\u2019s no technique. There\u2019s no tactic other than communication is really important. You have to learn to communicate and have difficult conversations in constructive ways,\u201d the director told PEOPLE.<\/p>\n Howard added, \u201cBeyond that, there\u2019s an element of luck because people either grow together or they don\u2019t and I don\u2019t think you can force that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It all started 50 years ago for\u00a0Ron\u00a0and\u00a0Cheryl Howard! On Sunday, the Oscar-winning director celebrated the 50th anniversary of his first date with Cheryl, and showed-off the sweet gifts they got for each other. \u201cNov 1 1970 Cheryl & I went on our 1st date. We went to see a re-release of Stanley Kramer\u2019s\u00a0It\u2019s a Mad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/figure>\n