Happy Anniversary . . . To Us!

Tomorrow, August 31st, is our wedding anniversary. How many years, you may ask? Forty-six. Oh. My. Gawd. That simply cannot be, because neither of us is that OLD.

We were married for eight years before our daughter was born so we used to get lots of questions such as "Are you going to have children?" or "When are you going to start your family?" Roy, who was already a grade school teacher, would either reply, "I don't like children," or "We want to make sure the marriage is going to last before bring kids into it."

Well, at this point in time, I think we can be fairly sure the marriage is going to last.

We were married at a candlelit ceremony at 7 o'clock in the evening. August 31st in Illinois corn country? We wanted to insure it be as cool as possible so opted for the early evening time. Was it cool? 'Course not. The church was not air-conditioned; fortunately, the reception hall was.

The groom almost didn't show up in time for the wedding. One of the guests was a Japanese guy Roy had gotten to know when they both lived with Roy's older brother in California a couple of years earlier. Tommy flew in from Canada especially for the wedding. He had heard lots of tales from Roy and his brother about the family acreage Roy grew up on which was an hour's drive from where we got married. True to form, and having absolutely no concept of time (some things never change), Roy decided to take Tommy on a little impromptu ride that afternoon (yes, the afternoon of the wedding) to tour the family property. They were having such a great adventure that neither one of them kept track of the passage of time and there was a question for a while whether the groom would be present for the wedding ceremony.

Turns out he had more time than anyone thought. The florist that provided our flowers had seven weddings that day, and ours was the last. We had to delay the start of the ceremony for twenty minutes until the flowers finally were delivered. Just a little glitch.

We've got no big plans for the celebration of the day tomorrow. Gonna set off early in the morning, take a lovely drive to a funky restaurant we love and treat ourselves to a leisurely, big breakfast. We're taking a couple of folding camp chairs and some reading material and are going to look for a sunny spot by the shore of an inland lake and relax, read and enjoy the water. We may bring the canoe with and go for a paddle if we feel ambitious. Otherwise, it'll be a laid-back, take-it-easy day.

Sounds good to me for two people who've been hitched for gettin' darn close to half a century.