Wedding Story

My fiancÃ?©e was a sharecropper’s daughter and her father did not want a fancy church wedding. We decided to have the wedding in my parent’s house, the parsonage. In 1955, Dad was the pastor of a small rural church just outside Snyder, Oklahoma.

We knew that most of the church members would show up, so mom planned a reception. Her oldest son was getting married and she wanted everything perfect. She borrowed a punch bowl, although she had never used one in her life.

First crisis, Mom mixed Kool-Aid punch in a large pickle jar. She put ice in the empty punch bowl and asked me to pour the punch into the bowl. Just as I began to pour we heard, Cra-a-ack. A large crack appeared in the punch bowl. I stopped pouring.

Mom wrapped her arms around the bowl trying to hold it together. It was a funny sight; mom trying to hold the punch bowl together with punch all over the table and dripping on the floor. With tears streaming from her eyes mom sobbed, “What are we going to do? I wanted everything to be just right.”

I put my arms around mom’s shoulders and told her, “Its okay, we can serve punch from the tea pitcher. We’ve never used a punch bowl before. Why start now?” We cleaned up the mess and made more punch.

A family friend was going to take pictures. His camera used roll film, which had to be advanced while watching for numbers in a small window on the back of the camera. When he loaded the film, he advanced the film continuously and never saw any numbers in the small window. He opened the camera and found that he had turned the roll over and the emulsion was to the back of the camera. He had wasted the roll of film. Second crisis, he’d only brought one roll of film.

We had planned the wedding for 7 PM. It was now 6:30 and he would have to drive eight miles into town to buy another roll of film. My fiancÃ?©e had not arrived yet, and I was beginning to wonder if she had backed out. I said, “Go ahead. We can delay the wedding a few minutes, if we have to.”

Third crisis, my favorite uncle, an alcoholic, drove up just as the friend headed for town. My uncle had been on a binge and when he returned home found out that I was getting married. He loaded his family into the car and drove from Texas to our place in Oklahoma. Dad was embarrassed and upset because my uncle had shown up half-drunk, but did not say anything.

I led my uncle to a back room, poured some black coffee down him, and helped get him dressed for the wedding. I had to tie his tie because he could not manage it. By the time we came back to the front of the house, I don’t think any of the church members knew that he had been drinking. The friend returned with the film just as my fiancÃ?©e and her family drove in.

The wedding began only fifteen minutes late. The minister concluded the wedding ceremony with, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” I was a married man after knowing my wife for less than four months.

My grandparents were present for the wedding of their oldest grandchild. Granny told my wife, “The Bible says that the man is the head of the family. BUT I am saying that the woman is the neck. The man can’t make a move without the woman.”

My dad told my wife that if something happened and we split, it would be my fault so she could come to them. Her parents made a similar statement to me. We each became a son or daughter in the other’s family.

After starting with everything going wrong, one thing went right; we became husband and wife.

Fifty years later-our daughter planned a 50th Wedding Anniversary. She reserved the kitchen/social room at our small east Texas church for 2 to 4 PM on Saturday afternoon, July 9, 2005. Our daughter and her husband planned to take Friday off and come to our house to finalize everything for the party. At the last minute, her husband had to work Friday and I drove nearly to Dallas to meet them and bring her to our place late Thursday evening. Her husband did not get to our place until late Friday. On Friday afternoon, a son and his family drove in. By Friday night, we had pallets on the floor for some.

Saturday morning, several went to the church to decorate and get ready for the celebration. My wife and I planned to leave the house about 1:30 to go to the church. Several relatives were planning to meet at our house and have a snack before going to the church. Our pastor called to see if someone could pick him up because he needed a ride; his wife was out of town.

Relatives began arriving and fixing snacks. At about 1:15 we loaded several cars. I was going to drive by and pick up our pastor and the others would follow my son-in-law to the church.

When we arrived at the church, my wife’s sister told her that a car of cousins had not made it from our house to the church. We knew that one of them had a cell phone, but we did not know the number. I called a niece in Oklahoma to get the number and called the cousins. I gave them detailed instructions, which they said one wrote down. After quite a while, I called again. They said they had to stop for gas, but were on their way. Still later, my sister called the cousins and they were still lost. She gave them new directions and they finally arrived at the church about an hour after we arrived.

We had a fine 50th Anniversary celebration with about 90 family and friends present. How fitting that this event should be just as hectic as our wedding day. That now makes two unforgettable days.