46th Wedding Anniversary

Forty-six years ago today Julie and I were married in Melvern,Kansas…in the very same little church where her parents were married 29 years before. 

It was crazy hot that summer in Kansas. Temperatures were over 110 for two weeks straight. On June 28th it was 114. Fortunately, the little church had AC, BUT… the reception was at the Peniel Church Camp building AND IT HAD NO AC—just two huge 5’ fans blowing hot air around—you know… the same way convection ovens work. Kansas women are true pioneer stock, and despite the heat, the night before the wedding the church ladies transformed that huge cement-floor gymnasium into a reception hall. There were twenty long tables and 150 folding chairs. Each table had two 14” taper-candles in glass star-shaped holders. It hardly looked like the same space where countless campers played basketball and other games for many years before and after that memorable event. 

When we entered the camp building after the wedding ceremony, the candles on the tables could not be lit. The 114 degrees had made them limp—seriously… they were not melted in the way that candles normally melt. They were just flaccid—still in their glass star bases, but each candle was otherwise lying flat against the white paper tablecloths as if they’d given up the ghost… and they had. 

We laughed but I wish we’d taken a picture of them before taking them away.  (I don’t know what we were thinking because the gigantic fans were blowing the 114 degree air around so hard the candles could not have held a flame if we had tried to light them.) 

An unexpected highlight was my friend Tim Zimmerman and his King’s Brass ensemble were playing in Kansas City that weekend and two of their members (Bob Johnson and my brother Jim) were in my wedding… so Tim and Bruce came all the way to Waverly to provide some great live music for us and our brave-hearted guests as we sat fully clothed in that sauna. Unlike most wedding reception, each guest actually lost weight by the time it was over. 

I wouldn’t change a thing about our wedding day. 

As I later wrote on a different anniversary to Julie:

“If time could somehow be reversed 

to change what might have been,

I’d choose the life that we’ve rehearsed,

and do it all again.”

This morning at breakfast, julie played “Remember when,” by Alan Jackson…

I couldn’t speak.

Those lines are on the bottom of this statuette: 

This morning at breakfast, julie played “Remember when,” by Alan Jackson…

I couldn’t speak.

https://youtu.be/TTA2buWlNyM?is=OG5aj8-nITV5ui8N