HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOM AND DAD
Today would have been my mother and father’s 59th wedding anniversary. Much love going out to them today.
There’s a backstory to their nuptials - one which I’m certain is most interesting but which, after all these years, I am still only partially aware of. Apparently Mom had been engaged to another fellow at some point, but broke it off; whether she broke it off before meeting Dad, or her decision was in fact the result of meeting Dad, is something I’ve never learned. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, but I can’t help but be curious. Mom didn’t talk about it much, other than to acknowledge that it did indeed happen. Dad - ever the jokester - used to carry around a newspaper clipping announcing her previous engagement, and whenever the two of them got into a spat he would pull the clipping out of his wallet and wave it around, saying “Well, you had your chance!”
And that would usually bring the argument to a screeching halt - sometimes with laughter on both sides, occasionally without.
The only things I know about my parents’ wedding beyond a reasonable doubt is that they were married on Aug. 31, 1962, at Crest Baptist Church in Midwest City, Oklahoma; and that I was born exactly nine months later on June 1, 1962. Now it’s no great secret that I’ve never been much good at math, but even I was able to do the computation on THAT one when I became old enough to understand such things…
Once, when I was a teenager and Melissa and I had been dating for a couple of years, I sort of casually remarked to her once while out someplace with my folks (probably having lunch at the local Bonanza Steak House one Sunday afternoon) that I had figured out that I was a “honeymoon baby.” Upon hearing this, Dad - usually the one who would go out of his way to make ribald and risqué comments, just to see how Mom would react - suddenly seemed all embarrassed and muttered something about how I had arrived earlier than expected.
To which my mom - much to the surprise of all of us, Dad most of all I think - just sort of grinned mischievously and responded, “Wanna bet?”
I can’t really explain why, and to be honest I’ve always been a little reluctant to put too much though into it, but that moment is one of my favorite memories of my parents…
In : Reminiscence
Tags: family. marriage. love