Friday, August 26, 1978 was the day I said, “I do,” to the man I loved then and do so still. Today, August 26, 2018, we celebrate our love.
Enjoy, with us, a short trip down memory lane from back then…
The Wedding Invitation – Forty years ago!
The Inside
The Ceremony
The wedding started promptly at 4:00 p.m. and was such fun. We wrote our own vows and had the organist play music that was popular of the times — Tubular Bells from the Exorcist; Nights in White Satin by Moody Blues; and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Music of the 70s at its finest.
We walked each other down the aisle, and doing so cut the ceremony down by about 10 minutes. After the ceremony, Albert and I were walking out of the church (ahead of the guests) when we saw a couple we had known for several years walking up the sidewalk. Suddenly, the wife took the gift she was carrying and hit her husband upside the head and said, “I told you we would miss it!”
Albert and I laughed so hard.
The Reception
Throughout the reception line, Albert kept pulling at his collar; even back then he would sweat just by breathing. We were looking forward to getting out of our clothes. It was a hot August day.
We saved the top of the cake for our one year anniversary. It didn’t keep well. Neither one of us got a good taste of the cake. We heard it was wonderful.
We had matches as souvenirs. Wish I had a picture of the matchbook. It said The Perfect Match with our names and date. Of course, back then, everybody smoked.
The After Party and the Honeymoon
We left the church and everyone was invited to our house out in the cove. It was an old farm-house we rented with 29 acres. A wonderful place that we enjoyed very much. We lived there all of four months. The landlord decided he wanted to sell the farm. Being young newly weds, we couldn’t afford it.
Lots of folks dropped in for the after party. We left for our honeymoon about ten that night. One of my bridesmaids agreed to stay at our house while we were gone on our honeymoon.
Our Honeymoon began as one big adventure that kept repeating itself (Stay tuned for future reveals). My husband is not a planner when we travel. Any plans we have, it is because I make them. It was my job to plan and pull off the wedding. His one and only job was the honeymoon. I should have known what was in store for me, but I was blinded by love.
The First Surprise
We arrived in Roanoke about 11 or 11:30 p.m.; and I asked where would we be staying. Albert smiled at me and said, “It’s a surprise.” And it was.
Albert had failed to make reservations. As it turned out, there were two different concerts that weekend–one in Salem and one in Roanoke. There were no beds to be had. I lost count after the fifth hotel/motel we stopped to check for a possible bed. It was getting close to 12:30 a.m. when I looked at Albert and said, “Okay, I give. Where is the surprise?”
He laughed and said, “I’ll try one more place.” It was a Motel 6. He came back to the truck (yes, my husband is such a romantic) and said, “I got us a room. But, you’re going to have to be imaginative about the room.”
I snickered and wondered aloud, “How imaginative?”
“It will be fine,” he replied.
The manager walked us up to the room, which I thought was odd. All of the rooms along the corridor opened on to the walkway-balcony. The manager stopped at the end room and looked at me and said, “I’m sorry miss, but this is all we have.”
He opened the door and there were two twin beds, unmade, covered with old furniture. To add insult to injury, there was no air conditioning.
By about 2:00 a.m., we finished moving the furniture and got settled in for the night.
“Honey, you’ve been such a good sport, I want to give you this gift to show you my love,” Albert said handing me a beautifully wrapped box.
I replied, “Oh, my. I have something for you too.” I handed him a smaller box wrapped in blue paper with summer flowers.
He opened his box and it was an engraved pocket watch with Roman numerals with the clock works on display as the second-hand revolved around the face. My box contained a gorgeous diamond necklace.
We snuggled and fell to sleep out of exhaustion.
We hope you enjoyed our little trip down memory lane! We will share more adventures of our time together these last forty years as we celebrate our love.
Update on my next book
The second book, DarkShadow, of The Chronicles of Eldershire is in process. Plans are to have a preliminary DRAFT finished by fall. It is later than planned, but this past summer was hard on me health wise. I found out I was allergic to soy and sesame seed, and then I got shingles. If that wasn’t enough, I’ve fought two bouts of poison ivy. Oh the joys!
Hugs and Write On!
40 Years! You & Me, Babes! first appeared on Pam’s Blog on August 26, 2018.
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