Happy Anniversary!

After the big wedding last month, Heather and I were reviewing the highlight reel together and she made a poignant observation. She noted that in her lifetime she has never had to experience the divorce of a family member - they are all still married to one another - and that is really something to celebrate. As our role models in marriage for life, we look to and recognize my mom and dad, who will tomorrow be celebrating their FIFTY-FIFTH wedding anniversary. This is definitely momentous!

At the wedding, there was a "married couples dance", where the floor cleared a little at a time until the couple married the longest was the only couple left on the floor. Guess who won?






You guessed it! No one else in the room had been married 55 years!

In Mom's own words, here are her memories of that special day and the years inbetween:

We were married in Ponca City Fri, October 30, 1953 about 7:30 in the eve by the Methodist pastor in the First Baptist Church. Reception following in the basement and then off we went to OKC for honeymoon and stayed at the Skirvin Hotel. Was strange checking in with my husband . It was a beautiful hotel and has been remodelled and I believe still in the same place-downtown OKC. We stopped in Stillwater enroute at a downtown cafe for a cup of coffee. We stayed two nights and went to the movie:Sat. nite The Robe in OKC. We attended the First Baptist Church downtown OKC on Sunday morning. Came home Sunday aft. and spent the night at the Overstreet (Nana and Popo) home in Ponca City-loaded up everything we had and drove to Kentucky, Vine Grove. Dad had rented a small home there enroute home to get married. Next day, we went out and bought the bedroom suite you are using, a table and chairs (4). Dad had a sack chair for the living room and a TV. He built a sofa from a slab of wood (screwed legs on it) and put a pad on top. He was stationed at Ft. Knox, Ky. for 4 mos. and then sent to Korea. I went back to Ponca City and worked til beginning of next semester and enrolled at OSU and finished my first degree-Bachelor of Science in Home Ec. Dept. Dad was gone 16 mos. One semester I took 20 hours to complete the course by the time he returned. He left March 1954 and returned end of July 1955. All our furnishings had been stored by the military and when Dad returned he was stationed in the Baltimore,MD area and attended a CIC school for 3+ months. We rented a furnished apt. there. Then stationed in Iowa for duty there. We were in an apt. where military bought all our stuff and then in about a year purchased our first home on Stamey St. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dad stayed in the military til Dec. 1956. He then joined the Pickwick Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in their Adv. Dept. Our first 3 years were most interesting and varied and different locations.We drove home Christmas '56 in very cold weather to Ponca and spent Christmas with the Overstreet grandparents. I remember stopping at a farm house enroute to get your baby bottle warmed. We had a bottle warmer in the car you plugged in and it had quit working. What a beginning for our married life and still going!! Many memories around the world in travels and living from east coast to west and Iowa to Okla.

Congratulations, Mom and Dad for 55 years of devotion to one another! We are all thankful for the inspiration you are to us.