45th Wedding Anniversary, 50th Friday of 2010....

Wow - it is so hard to believe that it has been that many years since that Friday night so long ago. We had taken that day off from work and I had to get my hair fixed just right for the little hat I had bought and BigD had gone hunting with his older brother. We were just going to go somewhere and get married but it was important to his Mom that we get married in the church we were members of. So we talked to the minister and he and his wife offered their home to us for the tiny little wedding we had there. My Dad gave me some money (before he went to the treatment center) and I bought a sweet little cream colored lace dress, low heeled shoes to match and a bow with netting attached to go over my teased hair. My Mom called in to say she would be coming to work late (she worked the second shift at one of the local tobacco factories) and when we arrived, the minister's wife took me to their bedroom to wait. She gave me a blue pop bead to put into my bra for something borrowed and something blue. She told me to walk into their living room when I heard the music (from their record player). I had called BigD earlier to tell him I had forgotten to order flowers so he came by the house before we left for the parsonage and my Mom would not let me come out of the bedroom. He had gone to a florist and bought a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses for me to hold while we got married. He left them with my Mom and she told him to give us time to get to the parsonage earlier than he did. I was so nervous and it felt like I waited an eternity. When the music started, I almost had a panic attack. I looked around and realized my only way out would be the window so I just took a deep breath and walked out the door into my new life. I came out of their bedroom and walked around the corner toward BigD and the minister. It wasn't until the little service was over that I realized who was there - my Mom, my sister Rose and her two little ones, my sister Ruth and her hubby (with the camera) BigD's older sister, GG, and older brother and his Mom and Dad. After the little service, BigD's brother and Ruth's hubby said we needed to go back to BigD's parent's house. So we drove there and they had bought a bottle of champagne and Ruth's hubby took pictures. How sweet was that? BigD's Mom had no idea that would happen and really didn't approve of the champagne in coffee cups but I treasure those few pictures I have to remember that night. I gave my beautiful flowers to my niece Moni, we went to Mom's to change and off we went to the Outer Banks. I borrowed a nice suit from Eileen and wore my older sister's Mouton Coat (that looked like a real fur coat) to go away in. We had a '56 Chevy and stopped at a drive-in for a hamburger on the way. We finally stopped at a motel in a small town about half-way to the coast and spent our first night. The next day we drove forever until we found a place to eat breakfast and got to the beach later that evening where we got a room right on the beach. The next day we drove all the way down the Outer Banks after which we headed back toward home. We spent that night in the same hotel and when we got up, realized there was a nice restaurant right across the street where we got breakfast. I guess love was blind the first morning. :-) We got back home and were back at work on Monday. I guess I need to dig those few little pictures Ruth's hubby took and scan them into the computer before next year. We were just babies but we were in love. Our children will never understand what the world was like back then. There were so many changes going on around us and the war in Vietnam was going strong. John Kennedy had been shot which brought great anxiety to the younger generation who had put so much hope in the changes he had tried to bring about. As teenagers, we had cried our hearts out until the anxiety had abated enough to realize the world wasn't coming to an end - yet. BigD had joined the Navy Reserve to avoid being drafted into the Army and we only had a little bit of time together before he would be gone for varying periods of time. We weren't always on the same page and the first year was extremely hard and at times I honestly thought we wouldn't make it. Before that first year ended, something came into my life that changed everything. What would have been impossible before was made possible. So our life together began and it has been an interesting ride - so far. Am I glad? Oh yes - I'm so glad.