A Perfect Match

You sometimes hear people say that the more time a couple spends together, the more alike they become. With Peg and Jim Hooper, they weren't kidding, reports The Early Show's Melinda Murphy.

The whole thing started when the Hoopers wanted to go to the rodeo to watch their grandson. To show support, they decided they needed matching western shirts. They couldn't find any so Peg made some herself. And the rest, as they say, is history.

"We have 37 matching [shirts] and about 5 or 6 singles," says Peg. Each is hand made by Peg, Jim's wife of 54 years. The couple has worn matching clothes every single day for the past 21 years.

Do they have to be in the same mood to wear the same thing?

"No, 'cause I'm the boss," laughs Jim, as Peg rolls her eyes.

Peg not only makes their shirts, but she makes their jeans and sweaters, too. She even tools her own belts. "Only thing she can't do anymore, and that's chew the leather to make it soft so she can make the boots," laughs Jim again. Peg rolls her eyes a second time.

For fun, the Hoopers take a lot of bus tours with a local travel company. People all over the country see them in their western wear. "Many people ask where we're from and we say, 'Wisconsin,'" says Peg. "[And the response is], 'Wisconsin, and you dress like that?'"

But, their greatest journey, their relationship, started off a little rocky.

Jim stood Peg up for their first date.

"I went back home and said, 'If that's the way he feels about it then OK,'" says Peg.

"She was kinda 'hotsy-totsy' stuff, you know, high class stuff, and I wasn't," explains Jim. "I was from the wrong side of the tracks."

The two remember their wedding day as one filled with nervous energy. But, half-jokingly, they say the secret to their success is getting their arguing done in the first five years and learning to talk things over.

And that means talking through the hard times, too. Their toughest was when their son, Howie, was killed in a car accident on July 5, 1980. One of the only shirts they have that doesn't match is a shirt Jim embroidered that depicts Howie riding a bull. Peg turned their son's room into her sewing room. She says she feels close to him there.

"I talk to him when I'm upstairs," says Peg.

All while she sews for herself and her husband. She even offered to make this reporter a shirt.

Peg hasn't decided to quit yet. But when she does, she first lans on making a quilt from all the shirt scraps.