It Seems Like Yesterday

Saturday April 16, 2011.  Not a necessarily auspicious date to most.  The day after the normal tax filing deadline., the 106th day of the year and on some years Good Friday. Here is a link to a site with all the other stuff that has happened on April 16th http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_16.  However as you might guess, none of that has to do with today's musings. 

On April 16, 1976 Pam and I were married.  A small ceremony at her mother's home in Poteet Texas attended by family only.  This particular year was one in which April 16th was good Friday.  The story of the wedding is an interesting one.  At the time Pam was working for CPL (Central Power and Light) as a home economist.  I was finishing my student teaching and working part time at the local Rexall drug store. This all took place in the rural southwest Texas ranching town of Uvalde.

Pam and I had met in a college class, she was beginning to work on her masters degree and I was finishing up my  bachelors.  It was right before Christmas 1975 and for those of you who know Pam, this will make sense (actually it was very unlike her but apparently I had made an impression), she asked me to attend her company Christmas party.  She thought I was older than her when the truth was I was two years younger.  The date was December 6th. We still celebrate this anniversary.  By Feb 14th of 1976 I had asked her to marry me and we picked out her ring in San Antonio at Joskes.  Most will probably not recognize that name but at one time it was a very popular store in Texas similar to Macy's and Neimans.  We would regret that ring purchase for a long time.  Not for the reason you would assume but as we bought a Marquee diamond and it had two sharp points it on more than one occasion scratched me, the car, furniture, Pam, the kids and God knows what else.  I was not employed full time yet and was going to school on the GI bill and working part time but we wanted to get her a distinctive(different) ring.  The marquee cut fit the bill. When I look at what we paid for this ring then and what wedding rings cost now I always get a bit tickled, but that is getting off track.

My parents had been married on Good Friday (Interestingly enough also after a short period of time,  a fact that immensely tickled my mother) and we had decided to do the same.  I did not realize at the time that Good Friday moves all around the month of April.  Though it should have been obvious, I was just thinking OK, first date easy to remember (Dec 6th the day before Pearl Harbor Day). Engagement easy to remember, Feb 14th Valentines day.  Therefore the wedding date should be easy to remember, Good Friday April 16th.  Pam's father was deceased and her mother worked at the drug store in Poteet.  We never considered anything other than paying for the wedding ourselves.  After an initial run at a guest list proved to be far too long, we decided to make the wedding family only (affordable).  As Alva insisted on helping, we decided to have it at her house in Poteet rather than at the Church. 

Alva had a small home sitting on a number of acres just outside of Poteet (just south of San Antonio).  It would be a simple ceremony with cake and refreshments afterward.  My parents, my sister and my brother and his wife and children were there from my side and Pam's sister and brothers and their respective families as well as several of her aunts and uncles were present.  My brother was my best man and Pam's sister her maid(matron) of honor.  We were married by the local Methodist minister. Besides the minister the only non family members present was the man who sang the Lords Prayer at the service and Pam's College roommate.  Now the story gets interesting.  This was 1976 so don't judge us harshly.  I wore a light lime green suit (yes, it was a popular color at the time) and Pam wore a matching gown made from a soft polyester and oh yes, my suit was polyester.  Both the suit and the gown are long gone.  Polyester does not store well.  It may not ever break down in the land fill but it does turn strange colors after being stored for a while.  You might also find it interesting that my car at the time was a lime green Pinto Station wagon.  Our family so enthusiastically sent us off that there was still rice in the car when we traded it in several months later.

We were to honeymoon (if you could call it that) in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.  Both of us had to be back at work on Monday.  We spent Friday night at the Palacios Dell Rio in San Antonio and Saturday night in Fredricksburg at the Inn of the Hills.  We returned Sunday afternoon to the small apartment we had rented to begin our lives as a married couple.  Blissfully ignorant of all that would transpire in the years to come.

Wedding Announcement

Our Engagement Picture - I wore my hair a little longer then.  We did make an effort to coordinate.  Though I am not sure why we chose the raspberry color.

No, I was not kidding about the light lime green suit.  Color on this old photo is not the best but it did coordinate with Pam's Dress.  You can tell the tie was green.  Also the cut was the popular square cut of the day.  Thank you John Travolta.  Hard to believe I was ever that thin.

From left to right - Pam's oldest brother Lonnie, Pam's mother Alva, Pam, me, my mother Rose and my father Peter.  His leisure suit was really close to a burnt orange.  Look at the size of the lapels on that shirt.

Wasn't kidding about the Pinto Wagon either.  Complete with fake wood trim.  I even bought it new.  Oh well, you would have had to have been there.  Both Pam and I had owned a Pinto before.  It was my second car and my first new car and it was her first new car as well as first car so we had a history.  So when we decided to get married I traded in my small pickup for the Pinto wagon.  That car would redefine the meaning of the word lemon and we would not have it long.

 Our Wedding Service.  For the younger set this was not done on a computer but typed on a typewriter.  Pam and I wrote our own vows.  Just click on the page and it will enlarge.

Wedding as reported in the Pleasanton Express I am not sure who wrote the article but they made it sound pretty fancy.  Pleasanton is also south of San Antonio.

So as thirty five years approaches it is interesting to sit and reflect.  I personally would not change a thing.  Marrying Pam was probably the best decision that I have made. I certainly can not imagine what life would have been like without her and our two children.  I think the only change she would have made was to pick a different color dress.  Though the story of shopping for that dress is interesting in itself and yes, I did see her in the dress before the wedding~ I helped pick it out.  Though it doesn't seem to have caused any cosmic problems to this point.

As to why my mother found my announcement that I was getting married so amusing, it is actually pretty simple.  My father had asked her to marry him after only two weeks.  She had grown up on a farm and was the youngest of five children.  I asked Pam to marry me after only two weeks.  She had grown up on a farm and was the youngest of five children.  The similarities don't end there but you get the point.  My mother used to swear that I was my father all over again.  In hindsight not a bad thing.  If my math is correct my parents would have been married 67 years on April 14th.  She and my father had three children all of who are still married to the same person.  My brother to his wife for 46 years and my sister to her husband for 31 years and Pam and I for 35.

My Parents Wedding Picture April 14, 1944

Note found on the back of my parents wedding picture.  Something I think is throughly cool.

My mother with her parents on her wedding day.  I am not sure how they got my grandfather in a suit.  Though my grandmother could make him do amazing things with just a look.

The church that they were married at in Harlingen Texas.  I took this about 1996 when I took them to the Valley to visit my Grandparent's graves.  They were married in a Presbyterian Church even though my mother was Catholic as the local catholic priest did not want to encourage service men to marry local women believing that the wartime marriages would not last.  I guess they proved him wrong. 

More Later

Bruce and Pam