Our Anniversary

Our Wedding Anniversary
Today is December 13th. It is our Wedding Anniversary. 37 years. In three days it will be 37 years that I have lived in Duluth. We got married in East Berlin, Pennsylvania at my small country church, Red Mount. It was a beautiful wedding, all I had dreamed of. The church was so full, people were standing in the aisles. I have a big family and all the relatives and friends were there. My husband was represented by his Mother, who flew out for the wedding. He had two cousins he was close to, that he hoped would come, but they were not able to make the trip. He only has one sister, she was in California and could not be there. I was so thrilled that his Mother could be there. He had a good friend from the army base that stood up for him as “Best Man”. My brothers were the ushers and I had 4 attendants. My best friend Nancy, was Maid of Honor, she was in a long Green Velvet gown and the bridesmaids wore Red Velvet gowns. I had the church decorated in reds and greens for the holidays. Now you know, at every wedding, something goes awry. At our wedding it was the flowers and the floral decorations, they did not arrive early like they should have. The florist was so late, the church was full and NO FLowers! I was a wreck...where are the flowers? My Mother called the florist, and she kept me calm. The florist came in and put everything together while my guests were sitting there in the pews. Oh well, I guess it could have been something worse.
Our family friend Helena, our organist kept everyone entertained with her great music while we waited. One thing my Mother and I wanted for sure was that we would have lots of music and that the music would be good. It was, it made up for anything that could have gone wrong!
Our wedding was recorded by a friend, and we played it at the 30th Wedding Anniversary party that the kids gave us for our 30th. I had it transferred from reel to reel tape to a cassette tape. Now I suppose, I should have it transferred to a CD!

Our reception was at the “Chalet” Restaurant, which was one of the few nice restaurants in the area with a banquet room, it was about 15 miles up the road from the church in Dillsburg. That restaurant hasn’t been there for years. We stayed at a Holiday Inn on our wedding night in Camp Hill. That Holiday Inn hasn’t been there for years either! It snowed about 6 inches after midnight and we had trouble getting up “Big Dam” Hill on the way to the farm in the morning because the road crews weren’t out, they didn’t move as fast in PA as they do here in Minnesota. The Harrisburg Airport closed due to the snow, and my Mother in Law was so upset that she couldn’t get her flight out that day. She said 6 inches of snow would never have closed the airport in Duluth! The snow gave me one more day at home before having to leave for Duluth. We left Monday morning instead of Sunday morning.

I cried the whole way across the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I kept telling my new husband how happy I was that my Dad told me he loved me, before we left. I had never heard those words from him before, and it meant so much to me. (You’ll remember I wrote about that in a post last winter). We made one stop on Monday night in Indiana. We arrived in Duluth at his Mother’s home at 9:30 pm on Tuesday night. I was a nervous wreck because we were in my ’68 mustang, pulling a U Haul with everything I owned in it, my bedroom set, dishes and kettles I had purchased before our wedding, and all of our wedding gifts. When we hit Wisconsin the roads were all snow covered and it was very cold, so they were very slippery. Most of the trip across Wisconsin was on narrow, two way road, and it started snowing the last part of the trip. Our hitch came loose and we had to tie it up at a gas stop, and I kept imagining we were going to lose our U Haul! It was a tense drive. I hated the snow and cold before I even reached Duluth! How was I going to survive a Minnesota winter?! I fell into my new Mother-in-law’s arms when we got to her door and I just cried and cried.