66 Years Ago Today

Today is Groundhog's Day. It is also my parent's 66th wedding anniversary. So, after a morning of putzing around the house, Micah and I decided to go to Casey's and have Gabby cook for us (she worked from 8-5 today) and then swing by and visit Grandma and Grandpa and wish them 'Happy Anniversary'. Not only is today their anniversary but I recalled that she was making suet pudding for the occasion (apparently the 66th anniversary is the suet pudding anniversary!). When we got there Mom was settling into her recliner and Dad was doing something or other in the kitchen. As we sat there visiting in the living room, it all started with the innocent question, "So, what were you doing 66 years ago today?" Mom looked at the clock and said, "Well, I wasn't dressed yet...in my wedding gown that is." Then she proceeded with details of things she remembered about their wedding day. The ceremony was on a Sunday at 3:00 p.m. They were married in a church in Decatur that was not my mom's regular church (not sure why they did that). Apparently they waited until later in the afternoon because it was a Sunday so that everyone would have time to go to church and have their Sunday dinner with their families. They didn't invite a lot of people like is done nowadays, pretty much just family going out to aunts and uncles and maybe just a few close friends. Heck, my dad didn't know anybody at the wedding except my mom and his best man. His parents weren't able to make it as there was a snowstorm in Iowa and the train wasn't running. After the wedding, they drove down Main Street in Decatur, honking their horn. They then went to the photographer's studio to take their portraits. Mom said by the time they got back to her parents' home her mom said, "Where have you been?!? People have been wondering where you are and are about ready to leave!" Her mom was in such a tizzy that she forgot to set the roses out around the cake.


Then Mom started talking about the honeymoon. They spent their first night at the Lincoln Hotel in Springfield, Illinois. She said that it was so old that quite possibly Lincoln might have stayed there! The bellhop took them to their room (because that's what they did in those days). The room they were assigned was, well, occupied. Apparently someone who had stayed there prior to them kept the key and came back to, uh, use it again. The bellhop said, "Well, someone else is using this room right now. I'll find you a different one." They didn't see what was going on in the room but apparently the bellhop got his eyes full. Their destination on this honeymoon was Mexico. They ate pretty much one meal a day because that's all they had the money for -- they lived on love, I guess. At this point, Mom started talking about a hotel in Louisiana which was, well, run by black people (not the term she uses but I do not care for the term that she uses). When they got in their room, the door didn't fit the door frame and there was about an inch space between the door and the frame AND it didn't have a lock. Mom said she couldn't even shut her eyes that night she was so scared.


At this point in the conversation, my dad walked into the living room. Mom and I were laughing about something or another and he gave us that look. Mom said, "I'm just telling her about our honeymoon." He got this funny look on his face and a glimmer in his eye and he said, "Just what part of the honeymoon are you telling her about?" When she told him that she was talking about the crummy hotels and the tire that blew in Louisiana that took a chunk of their money. Dad talked about a place they stayed in San Antonio that was basically a former Army barracks because it just had the curtains for walls. Mom didn't remember that one, but she remembered a different one that had a bathtub that was soooo long it was more like a trough and they had a good laugh over it (she said Abe Lincoln probably could have bathed in it comfortably -- you can't tell she's from Illinois, the "Land of Lincoln"). Even Dad was a little uneasy when they cross the border into Mexico, he definitely wasn't spending the night there. They stayed long enough to buy her brightly embroidered Mexican coat (which she still has) and come back to the good old USA.



While we were on the subject of coats, she started talking about her fur coat. That lead to the topic of my Grandma Smith's fur coat and she wondered who had that now. I didn't remember her having a fur coat but Mom said it was beautiful and cost a good deal of money. Dad said it was a seal fur coat and that Grandma always kept it in cool storage. He thought Deb had it but wasn't sure. Mom asked him just where my great aunt Tray's fur coat was and he didn't know where that one went. I have her fur coat from when she was a child. Mom doesn't understand why more people don't wear fur coats today -- she didn't get the politically correct explanation I tried to give, she just thinks they're warm so why not.


She also talked about being in a one room school in grade school. She theorized that she got a better education with all the ages mixed together because as a youngster you kind of heard what the older kids were learning so by the time you were being taught these things they weren't totally unfamiliar to you and as an older kid, as you listened to what the younger kids were being taught it gave you a quick review as well. She also said you didn't dare get caught with your feet in the aisle, you had to sit up straight and there was no talking. That last rule was the hardest for her. One day she was standing with her nose against the chalkboard being punished for talking, when the superintendent walked in to visit their class. She was so embarrassed! I asked if her parents ever found about it since her dad was on the board and wrote the teachers' paychecks but she said if they did she didn't tell them!


It was getting so hot in her house and Micah and I were getting so sleepy that we just had to get home but I was so glad I stopped and we got to listen to such great stories. Hopefully there can be more stories yet to come!