My Guest Author today is my Daddy as he shares memories of
his wedding day seventy-four years ago.
Nineteen forty-six was in the aftermath of War. Like lots of reunited lovers, we planned for marriages but not weddings. We asked my sister, Barbara, and Jean’s sister, Betty, to be our wedding party. Then we told Jean’s folks and my folks about the wedding date. Jean’s mother decided she’d cook us a wedding supper.
On the appointed day I dressed in the brown Sears wool suit I’d worn for high school graduation. On the way to town I stopped and bought Cousin Jim’s ‘35 Chevrolet for $300. The transmission had tore out of it, and Jim had abandoned it near the Olsen Field beaver ponds. I hired Chub Fisher to repair the automobile. Then Barbara and I drove up Tin Can Hill to pick up Jean. Betty was going to Normal School in Billings. Jean’s cousin Ralph would pick her up. We’d meet them in Big Timber to get a marriage license and find the Lutheran minister.
Jean and Barbara had ordered three Talisman Rose corsages earlier. When we picked them up there were six instead of three. Betty brought up a gardenia corsage. The bride wore it, and we had flowers to share with the mothers and Jean’s grandma. Ralph was with us to see that the wedding knot was tied right.
And then we ran into a problem. All the ministers had left town. The nearest clergyman was in Livingston.
At that time a marriage license was only valid for the county in which it was issued. We returned to the Sweet Grass County courthouse and I got our money back on the first marriage license I had ever bought. We got another license in Park County fifteen minutes before the courthouse closed. Then we went to the Livingston Lutheran Church.
The regular preacher was on vacation – but he had a substitute from Wisconsin. A telephone call indicated he could legally marry us. We trooped into the Lutheran Church and stood before the altar. “Altar” is a good word, there are few things that can “alter” a person more.
The pastor lined us up. Although Ralph, Barbara, and Betty promised to object, we repeated our vows. The three members of our wedding party failed to keep their promise, and the knot was securely tied.
A balcony was behind us. When we looked around, the balcony was lined with the minister’s red headed children. Six of them. Did they offer the bride and groom a challenge? Perhaps they were a sign of things to come.
* the wedding couple would indeed have six children
but none of them were redheaded