Memory Monday...The Wedding! (Part I)

“In Marriage You Learn To Give Up The "Me ness for We ness!” 
― DeBorrah K. Ogans

We made it to our respective homes...it is also Christmas, my mother's crowning season!  And now, on top of that, she has a wedding to get through and a new grandson.  My sister, Judy, who is to be my matron of honor just gave birth on December 10th to her second son, David.  My sister and family did not live in Pittsfield so they, as well as my three cousins (who were older than we were...really closer to mom in age), I and Dagmar were all staying at Mom and Dad's along with my younger brother, Jack who was 13-14. Mom would not think of putting any family up at a local motel! And Dick showed up on the 28th, after Christmas.  He did stay in a motel as did his brother who was  to be his best man. His brother, Fay, had brought his girlfriend, Sarah with him.  I think Sarah may have still been in high school.  It would not do for her to stay in a motel so we had made arrangements for her to stay at a friend's house.

Judy with baby David- two year old Doug and my mom in the dining room.

There had been quite a few deliveries to the house of wedding gifts.  It was the custom then to spread gifts out for all to see...does that still exist today, I wonder?  Here I am at the front door collecting some to the gifts being delivered.  Brides-to-be did register at the local jewelry store who would stock up on the chosen silver ware pattern, crystal glass ware and china pattern so all anyone had to do was to go in, pay for what they wanted to send and it would be wrapped and delivered. 

Here I am at the door with little Doug, getting more deliveries!

My parents loved to party and were charter members of the Dance Club started many years ago when I was little.  About four or five times a year Dance Club would hold a big shindig with live orchestra and all!  It was a kind of rite of passage to get old enough to be able to attend DC as a guest!  The night before our wedding, there was a big Christmas dance held at the Legion Hall.  We all went...my cousins who didn't partake in such festivities stayed home to babysit my nephews.  After the dance different age groups would head out to another party...one of my friends had invited Dick and me out to her parents' house while the parents went to another house. I think Judy and her husband Jim may have gone back to my parents' house as she had just given birth to a baby not three weeks earlier.

I was twenty-three; had been out of college for a year; had worked for a year teaching; owned my own car...I was an adult!!  But around one or two AM, my mom calls out to Shulman's where we were partying, to tell me I should come home!!!  I needed my rest....after all....I was getting married the next day!!    A couple of Dick's friends from college were also there...one was to be a groomsman and the other, just came along for the ride!  

I was furious with my mom....she and I were really very close and very much alike but we did tend to clash occasionally! Deep down I knew she was right, so Dick took me home and probably went ahead and partied without me!!  The next morning my mom serves me breakfast in bed!!!  My last meal as a single girl!!  Doug was my constant companion so he crawled up on the bed to help me eat!  

Doug helping me eat my LAST meal!

I have very little memory of the next few hours. We were to get married at half past the hour of three!

Again, my mom..who was an avid reader and lover of words and phrases...was very taken by using the "half past the hour" in stating the time on the invitation.  She had seen it in a book somewhere!  Several days later,  Dick made a comment to the me that he wished we had the time earlier because all his family...mom, dad,  little sister, Janice, two grandmothers and a grandad would have to drive back home late and in the dark.  Remember, they are in Missouri, across the Mighty Mississippi and about three and a half hours away.  I wish he had said something much earlier, but then we might not have known as mom kind of did it all while I was working away in Reno!