Thoughts from Crow Cottage (My Main Blog.)
crowbelle's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Years Ago Today Thirty Four Years Ago Today Wow. Am I that old? I guess one of these days I�m going to have to admit it� I am past �middle age� now, and heading down the final furlong of life. June 13, 1970. That seems like another solar system away from here. And yet, I can remember it clearly � much more clearly than I can remember a lot of small details of my life these days � like for instance, why I came into a room � or where I left my glasses � but that day, 34 years ago, is somehow almost crystal clear in my mind. Although some of it is a bit foggy� I got married for the first time on Saturday, June 13th, 1970. Granted, it was a mistake, and granted, I should have listened to my mother when she warned me not to do it. She never fancied Bill. And he never fancied her. But I was 22, thought I was all grown up and knew my own mind, and so I married him. We were living in Hyattsville, MD, at the time we got �engaged�. He gave me a ring he�d had reset, with his grandmother�s diamond in a new plain gold band�and our wedding rings were also plain gold. We weren�t fancy folk�just poor working stiffs. Well, I was the working stiff � he was the college boy making his way through Univ. of Maryland, on the GI Bill, after returning the summer before from about 16 months in Viet Nam with the US Navy � in the River Patrol Force. I feel for the moms, dads, sisters, brothers, lovers, wives, husbands, children, and friends and relatives of all those servicemen and women today in the Middle East. I lived through it 33 years ago myself. Only things were different then. TV coverage was 2 weeks behind reality. I never knew exactly what was happening there, and when we did see it, it had been filtered extensively. But it was not a happy time, just as these times are not happy now. So Bill came home in July 1969, on the same day that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon � and the following June 13th, we were married. We packed our old green Chevrolet that Bill bought for $500 from his Mom when he came home from Viet Nam, and attached his Honda motorcycle to the back fender, settled our cat, �George Washington� nicely into the car with all our stuff, and drove the 8 hours up the eastern seaboard to our home town of Marblehead, MA, where all the plans for our little wedding were taken care of for us � by my folks. They did this for me � even though they were against me marrying Bill. We got married in his church, an Episcopal church, rather than mine � a Protestant church � and I�ll never really know why� I didn�t do the planning, you see. We just arrived the day before, on June 12th, (I think, maybe it was June 11th) and went to a party with our friends, and then got married on the day � without so much as a worry about all the little intricate details that had to be dealt with � by others. It wasn�t fair. I was marrying a boy they didn�t like. They paid for the wedding, and did all the footwork � and I hardly remember thanking her for it. Bill�s folks came up for a couple of days, his brother Michael was his best man � but Michael turned out to be not such a �best man� in the end. My �best woman� (or maid of honor) was my high school best friend, Sandy L. We had about 50 people at the wedding. The reception was at my parents� house in Marblehead, and June 13th was a perfect #10 day for the event. Back in Maryland/Washington D.C., I had shopped for a simple dress for the wedding � not a fancy wedding �gown� but just a white dress. I found it at a store in D.C. called Garfinkle�s � I can barely remember buying it, but it was on my lunch hour � I worked nearby � two blocks from the White House actually, so I went over to Garfinkle�s and found this white mini-dress. Yes, a Mini-Dress! That was what we wore back then � in the late 60�s/early 70�s. When I walked down the aisle at the church, I could hear gasps from some of the older folks when they saw many inches of skin above my knees showing � on my wedding day! And I didn�t wear a bra either that day! So there! Like I said, we were not fancy folk � so we said our �I will�s� and got hitched. Our cat, George, stayed with my folks while we tried to go on a honeymoon. It wasn�t really a very well planned trip, to say the least. We left that day, after having consumed way too much champagne and cake, in our old Chevrolet � which someone had painted up in white with all sorts of sayings relating to Bill and me� and off we went into the sunset. We stopped at Rockport, up the coast from Marblehead about 30 miles, and stayed at the Bearskin Inn on Bearskin Neck in that quaint little tourist town. But we quickly learned that Rockport was a �dry� town � so we couldn�t get a drink with dinner � which, at that age, was an important part of our existence � so we drove back down the coast a few miles to Gloucester, and had dinner and drinks there� The next morning we set off on our �honeymoon� which was to go �camping somewhere down Maine.� We headed for Orr�s Island or Bailey�s Island, whichever was nicer. It took forever to get there, we had no reservations or plans and, when we arrived, there was no one there�except the motel owners, but no guests yet � the tourist season hadn�t got going by June 14th! Weird, huh? These days, it�s probably packed year �round there� but anyway, we gave them our traveler�s checks, and checked in � they told us that the restaurant there wasn�t open yet! Well, we fumed and moped around a bit, then decided we hated it there (oh! today, I�d kill to be up there in that lovely spot!) and we checked out, got our money back and drove all the way back down the New England coast to Rockport, MA, and stayed there by the beach for the rest of our week. It wasn�t the worst honeymoon anyone ever had� but it was typical of us at that point in our lives� we just didn�t plan ahead! Everyone was shocked to hear we�d spent the whole week in nearby Rockport! Funny thing is that now, after 34 years, one divorce, and both of us re-married, Bill�s wife is from Rockport! And one more funny thing � Bill�s current wife, and my current husband, both have the same middle name � �Hooper�! You couldn�t have scripted that! We scooped up our beloved George Washington, put the motorcycle back on the car and off we drove - back to the D.C. area again, to our humble little apartment in Hyattsville. I remember we had a flat somewhere in Rhode Island on the highway, and had to spend the day at a Sears place getting a new tire put on�we had to disassemble the motorcycle from the rear of the car, it was hot, and the cat was not pleased! But hey, we were 22 and 23 years old� we never worried much about anything! Back home, nothing much had changed. We had lived together before we got married, and we just went back to our regular lives again. Some of our friends down there didn�t even know we weren't already married before! When we told them we�d been away to get married, they were shocked! Today, Bill and his family live only a few blocks from Crow Cottage. We split after a tumultuous marriage in 1976 � not very long but long enough to make me never want to be married ever again! Almost. Until I re-discovered my long lost love, Paul � whom I had fallen head over heels in love with when I was 14 years old � before I had met Bill! At 38, we met again, fell in love and married each other in 1986. We had the best honeymoon anyone could ever have�three weeks touring England and Scotland � in a little hired car � with no firm plans � just the long winding hedgerows before us� what fun we had. And England got under our skin but good that year�we�ve returned 7 more times in the 18 years since then, and can�t wait to get back next year again. It�s heaven over there� But it�s here we live, at Crow Cottage, and it�s here our dogs live, so it�s here we�ll stay I guess for the rest of this lifetime, with the occasional foray into the land of our dreams. Cheers (and hip, hip hooray for marriage! Just get it right the first time if you can!) Bex
P.S. I looked for some pictures of that day back in 1970 for you, but I'll be darned if I can locate my little book of wedding pictures... I know they are in this house, but I just cannot lay my hands on them! Sorry! 11:24 am - 13 June 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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