I Should Have Eloped

Maybe Newton's first law of motion describes my agreeing to marry Dennis.  An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. No unbalanced force appeared on the horizon and once I agreed to marry him there was no way of going back.

My brother Kenny actually introduced Dennis and I the summer before I was a senior and he was a student teacher in Industrial Arts at my high school.  Kenny was enthralled with the fact that he had a dragster and we drove down to Warner one day to meet him. Dennis was nice looking, six years older than I and we did not date until February when his student teaching was done.  He followed the rules of not dating students.

After his student teaching was done he took a job teaching in Copan, Oklahoma and was home every weekend.  I was pretty active in school activities and we actually didn't date that much as I was busy.  Add to that the fact I went out with other people at the same time.  He tried to get me to marry him and not go to Stephens.  He ended up going to work for an oil field supply company that summer and moved to Farmington, New Mexico.  In the year and a half before we got married I had seen him a total of eleven dates. If that implies that I really knew very little about him, it's right.

Mother moved into the wedding planner mode.  That was definitely not her calling.  Forget looking at the latest copy of Bride's Magazine.  Let's keep this simple and get it over with was more her idea.  A short wedding dress, described in the newspaper clipping, as waltz length was nothing but ugly.  The attendants dresses were made by Dennis's mother of aqua satin even uglier. And just who plans a wedding for 10:00 on a Saturday morning in January and does the reception at home instead of at the church?  Who invites relatives we have never seen to a daughter's wedding? You guessed - my Mother.

There were three wedding showers all of which I totally blocked out of my mind as I dislike opening presents in front of other people.  I must have received enough towels and crocheted pot holders to open my own store. One shower I do remember as it was given by Ruth Winner from my carpool and Linda Reavis and they spiked the punch.  My Dad loved having me come home quite tipsy. Had to be on my best behavior for the one in Warner and the one Joan, my sister-in-law, gave for me.  
Was I really supposed to be excited about getting an iron or a silver tea service?

Dennis came home a few days before the wedding.  He sold his car, a 1965 Impala, to Kenny and we were keeping my Volkswagen with the cheap car payments.  Moving to New Mexico meant getting all my stuff packed up and sent by railway express.  All my stuff meant all my clothes, books and all those little scraps of memorabilia that I put into scrapbooks as I knew anything left at home would be gone.  Dennis pitched a horrible fit at the $57.00 it cost to send it.  Hmm....didn't know he had a temper.  Then he fainted when we went to have the blood tests done.  Did he faint over the thought of the $57.00 or the sight of his own blood?  I think both.

Pam

Pam came from Columbia to be my Maid of Honor but Cathie couldn't make it from Lubbock so Dennis's sister, Judy, was the bridesmaid.  We got married in the Chapel of Grace Episcopal Church which was a problem because most of Dennis's relatives thought they would be forever condemned to Hell if they set foot in an Episcopal Church.  Added to the problem of the church was the fact that although it was a sunny day at 10:00 in the morning it was 2 degrees with a thirty mile an hour wind out of the west. One of those days it would be better to stay at home by the fireplace so not many people attended.

After the short wedding with very few in attendance everyone moved to our house for the even shorter reception. I must add here that Judy is a little fuzzy in the official wedding photograph as she was so hung over she could hardly keep her eyes open and I am quite sure Pam was still wondering why I was marrying this guy.  We had packed the Volkswagen with most of the stuff the day before and had to go buy a luggage rack to put on top in order to get clothes and extra wedding presents to New Mexico.  All we would have needed would have been a mattress tied on top to look like the Grapes of Wrath. Kenny made matters worse by writing on the car and doing the tin can thing.

Paul, Little Don and The Bride

While I was changing clothes into the lovely going away outfit the phone rang for me.  It was Western Union with a telegram for me.  I must say that is the only telegram I have received in my life.  It said,    
"Congratulations and all the happiness in life. Stop. Just remember I will always love you." Stop. Barney.  Stunned, dumbfounded, total disbelief!  Who does that?  

Was this after the telegram?

Newton's Law suddenly turned into Murphy's Law as anything that could go wrong did.  If it sounds like the wedding went perhaps a bit poorly wait until you hear about the Honeymoon to Red River, New Mexico to go skiing. Priceless!