Twenty one years ago, this past Monday, the 5th of June, I walked into the office where Misty worked and asked "So...you wanna get married?" She looked at me like I had just walked in off a spaceship..."Yea...right! Oh. You're serious? YES! YES! YES! When?" As soon as possible.
We drove up to the courthouse, got our marriage license, then took a couple of days to get things ready. Found a guy in the phone book (remember those?) who was a minister and a JP, made an appointment, called my sisters and a couple of friends and told them when and where to meet us.
Then Friday, June 7th, (D-day plus one I told her..."I'll be able to remember our anniversary because I never forget D-day.") We all met up. We were two broke puppies back then, both of us coming off divorces. I stopped at Wal-Mart and got her a $6.00 wedding ring. She told me she didn't need it. "Nope...a girl needs a ring when she get's married." Stopped at Food Lion and got some flowers. Same thing. A girl needs flowers. Our wedding cake was a box of Hostess Cup Cakes to pass around. I suspect never have two 17 year olds gotten married on such a shoestring. I was 50...she a few years younger.
(That tie was not really THAT ugly...it just photoed poorly.)
The actual "ceremony" took a few minutes. My sisters cried and laughed. We jumped in the pickup and took off for the Skyline Drive, and drove down through the mountains. We made each other a promise. This was number three for each of us. We were too old, and too lazy to go through this again, plus this time when we stood in front of God and witnesses and swore "'till death do us part" we really understood what that meant. No walking away from this one. We would just have to get along no matter what.
We've been together since, almost never out of each others sight. I've been through cancer, and open heart surgery. She's had both knees replaced, her back operated on, and suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain that left her, IN HER WORDS...not mine, "brain damaged." We spat a few times a day but never actually get "mad" at each other.
Twenty one years ago today...it seems we've been together forever, and it seems like yesterday. Maybe we'll go to the range. She wants to shoot HER Python.
Hooda thunk a "Yankee girl" from Chicago and a Redneck like myself, who had almost never been out of the state of Virginia would have met up and stuck together this long?
We drove up to the courthouse, got our marriage license, then took a couple of days to get things ready. Found a guy in the phone book (remember those?) who was a minister and a JP, made an appointment, called my sisters and a couple of friends and told them when and where to meet us.
Then Friday, June 7th, (D-day plus one I told her..."I'll be able to remember our anniversary because I never forget D-day.") We all met up. We were two broke puppies back then, both of us coming off divorces. I stopped at Wal-Mart and got her a $6.00 wedding ring. She told me she didn't need it. "Nope...a girl needs a ring when she get's married." Stopped at Food Lion and got some flowers. Same thing. A girl needs flowers. Our wedding cake was a box of Hostess Cup Cakes to pass around. I suspect never have two 17 year olds gotten married on such a shoestring. I was 50...she a few years younger.
(That tie was not really THAT ugly...it just photoed poorly.)
The actual "ceremony" took a few minutes. My sisters cried and laughed. We jumped in the pickup and took off for the Skyline Drive, and drove down through the mountains. We made each other a promise. This was number three for each of us. We were too old, and too lazy to go through this again, plus this time when we stood in front of God and witnesses and swore "'till death do us part" we really understood what that meant. No walking away from this one. We would just have to get along no matter what.
We've been together since, almost never out of each others sight. I've been through cancer, and open heart surgery. She's had both knees replaced, her back operated on, and suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain that left her, IN HER WORDS...not mine, "brain damaged." We spat a few times a day but never actually get "mad" at each other.
Twenty one years ago today...it seems we've been together forever, and it seems like yesterday. Maybe we'll go to the range. She wants to shoot HER Python.
Hooda thunk a "Yankee girl" from Chicago and a Redneck like myself, who had almost never been out of the state of Virginia would have met up and stuck together this long?
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The only question was when. When I walked into her office, I had just gotten off the phone with my lawyer, who had told me my divorce was final. So I figured "Why not now." 
