Today is June 19, or Juneteenth, as we know it in the South. It's the birthday of an old friend of mine, it's officially African-American Emancipation Day, and it's also the wedding anniversary of my darling (late) grandparents.My grandmother was engaged to her high school sweetheart when she went work in the mess hall at Ridgecrest one summer. She met a boy named B.J. and fell for him hard & fast, because, as she said, he was the first boy to ever make her laugh so hard her stomach hurt. They left North Carolina that summer very much in love, and proceeded to start their long-distance courtship from Texas to Tennessee. (Coincidentally, I worked at the very same camp in 1996 and 1997, and met no such wonderful boy.) Rumor has it that they actually tied the knot at the Justice of the Peace before their church wedding in June of... 1947? I'm not sure. Whatever the year, my grandparents were warm, smart, funny, faithful, amazing people with the kind of relationship that anyone would be lucky to have. Their 3 children and 7 grandchildren looked up to them always, and look up to their memory still. Happy Anniversary, Meem & Peep.
14 comments:
You are correct in writing that Mom & Dad were married a few months before their "official" wedding date of June 19th, 1947. I have the original marriage license (from Georgia, which didn't require a waiting period) at home. Lucky for them Mom didn't conceive from that first night of marriage. Your mother arrived 10 months after the June wedding, but it could have been dicey if she arrived six months after that date.
That is a very nice story, Jamie. :)
Happy Anniversary, Meem and Peep!
(thanks dad for verifying the pre-wedding wedding)
I love the pre-wedding wedding! How thrilling that must have been! Can you imagine the giggling?
They seem like a model couple, Jamie... thanks for telling us about them!!! :-)
Big Al, Connie says the wedding was 1948, as she was born in April 1949.
And for the record, I'm afraid I inherited that "could appear dicey" quality. *weg*
Awe they look so cute together.
1947, 1948, whatever. I'm supposed to remember what year my sister was born? Regardless, it's a great story. I'll send you the details so you can edify your vast reading audience with "the rrrrrrrest of the story" (said in the tremulous voice of Paul Harvey).
you can be my ghost writer.
Ghosts riders innnnnn, the skyyyyyy.
I had a pre-wedding wedding.
You know, thats an interesting concept...to have a pre-wedding wedding. That might take the pressure off the actual wedding day you have with everyone, and let you just enjoy it. I have never married, just been with the same guy for 23 years and we have a 19 year old son, and together we are the three muskateers. I saw no need to marry. Bac then I thought the vows of 'til death do us part, and to love and obey' were unrealistic. I would never marry anyone until death do us part....if they started to hit me, or mess around on me for example, I'd be outta there once efforts to sort it out failed. And for 'obey' - give me a break - how any woman could agree to 'obey' a man is not within my realm of understanding because at the risk of sounding like a raving feminist, in an equal relationship the is no such thing as a requirement ot 'obey' each other. Hmmm maybe I am a raving feminist and just didn;t know it.
Anyway Jamie, your grandparents sound like wonderful people!
what a sweet story! happy anniversary, indeed - both of them! :)
If I had a pre-wedding wedding I'd probably be too lazy to continue planning the wedding wedding. *snort*
My parents also had their pre-wedding wedding. They had their civil ceremony a month before the church wedding. My mom has pictures of them signing the court papers looking really nervous and oh so cute. =D
Feliz Aniversario!
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