Cherished Memories

Fall has always been her favorite time of the year. Pretty blue skies, cool nights and after a hot summer it feels so refreshing. God’s beautiful, painted landscape and scenery takes her breath away and gets more beautiful every year.

 It also brings many memories to mind and October is and will always be her favorite month. Her most cherished memories are of a young woman that just turned eighteen that summer and her soldier and future husband that had just returned from Vietnam a year earlier.

To say they had a world wind courtship is putting it mildly. They met and started the courtship in August while he was on leave from Fort Bragg N.C.

When he left after his leave she was so lonely and heartbroken but they made use of their spare time writing letters. It was in one of those letters that he proposed. It was the middle of September and he told her he could get a ten day leave the first of October. They told their parents and started making plans for a world wind wedding on October 10^th. It was to be a small affair with only family and friends since there was no time for anything else plus they didn’t have the money to spend on anything big or expensive.

He was to wear his Army Dress Uniform and she in her white dress. It took her and her mama a couple hours to find the dress and veil. She wasn’t to impressed with the dress till she saw the price tag and it said ten bucks. She told her mama it just looked to plain and her mama said,, “plain my hindend, I got married in a flour sack dress.” Ten bucks was a lot of money back then but they still had to get their Physicals, Blood tests and license so the cheaper the better.

They’ll never forget the day they went for their physicals, blood tests and license. First came the physicals and blood tests and when they walked out of the doctor’s office they were so happy they ran with the paper work straight to the courthouse. They walked into the Register Of Deeds Office and he must have been really busy that day cause he looked up and said, ya’ll here to get ye marriage license? They said yes, and he then said, can either one of you type? They both answered at the same time with, “I Can.” They neither one had taken any typing classes in school but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

He told them he had to make a little trip down the hall and he’d put the necessary paper work in the typewriter and they could type in the info. He probably hadn’t eat lunch yet so he took off like a hot streak. They both sit side by side at that typewriter and he’d type a letter and then she’d type one. Needless to say, by the time he walked back in his office they didn’t have it all typed out and there stood another couple waiting to get their license. He finished it up and they paid him the three bucks and both of them tried to get through the door at the same time they were so happy.

They’d already met with the preacher at his house and he gave them a little talk about how important it was to know what marriage meant, so on and so forth. All they wanted was to get married the sooner the better.

The next couple of days they were busy as a bee. They had to pick a place to have the ceremony so both their dads would possibly come cause they knew they didn’t take to kindly to weddings. The groom’s father had 12 young’uns and hadn’t come to either one’s wedding and the bride being the oldest and first to get married in her family, she was also skeptical about her daddy being there too.

They chose her future sister in law’s house cause it was middle ground and that beautiful little fireplace looked like the ideal spot. She was overjoyed and told them she’d take care of the flowers, food etc. Between her future sister in law, her mama and his mama and all those beautiful Fall flowers in the yard they never worried a lick about it. Another reason they chose to have it there was the future father in law stayed at his daughter’s house a lot.  He’d come and stay a week at a time if he took the notion. He loved to work outside, planting apple trees and shrubbery, etc. and her daddy loved to visit and did it quite often. All the while the future sister in law cooked dinner (lunch) and any other meal for that matter cause she loved to feed everybody and could whup up a table full of food in no time, they’d both sit under the shade tree and shoot the bull, the bride’s daddy more so till they heard, “dinner’s on the table.”

 She heard her mama say to her daddy many times “keep your hindend at the house and let that ole feller do his work.” He’d just look at her and grab his walking stick and hoof it up the road.

Come the big, anticipated day, it was drizzling rain and on any other given day it would have been so dreary but no sirreee, not that one. Sure enough, the groom’s father came but the bride’s daddy said he had to slop and feed the hogs. Her mama said, “any ole excuse beats none a-tall.”

That beautiful, rainy Saturday became a day to remember and cherish the rest of their lives and they set out on a long journey following their hopes and dreams. That was forty six years ago come October 10^th and the memories are still as fresh as the morning dew and beautiful as an October sky.

They’ve fulfilled their hopes and dreams and then some. Life may have knocked them down a few times but they have been there for one another through it all. Marriage never promises a Rose Garden without the thorns.

 Enduring love that’s meant to be will last forever, especially

when you’re with the one you’re suppose to be. Love knows no boundaries and can stretch into eternity.

                                           © Susie Swanson, 2016