…of a century has passed since me and the wifey-mae ran through a hailstorm of rice. Yes after the wedding.
We were married on a Sunday, August 7th in 19 hundred and 83. The prior century. The 20th century. It was hot and it hadn’t rained in about 6 weeks prior to our wedding. After the cemony, it came a shower of rain. Janee’s Daddy said of he knew it would rain on our wedding day, he would have helped us move it up a bit earlier.
Friends and family came, lot of them. A church full. Many of them bearing gifts. About 250-300 folks. We did things a bit differently. We had a cake cutting on the night before, after the rehearsal. It would have had to been a big cake to feed 250-300 or be cut into really small tidbits.
My Daddy was more nervous than I was. I remember waiting in that little choir room and him asking if I was nervous. I sad no. He was. Daddy and Momma left and drove to Gaffney, SC (about 1.5 hours from home) and got married down there. Then, they came home and didn’t tell anybody for almost 2 weeks. Times were a bit different in 19 hundred and 59. Daddy was almost 19 and Momma was 15.
My preacher, Ralph May, saw my keys in the pants pocket of my tux. He asked what that was prior to the start of the wedding. I showed them to him. He said he would keep my keys so they wouldn’t make any of the wedding pictures look funny. So I gave them to him. Thought no more of it.
The ceremony was underway and I saw my Paw-Paw Powell sniffling. He was the bomb. Both he and Paw-Paw Ramsey were very big contributors to my big streak of ignorance and having fun. Anyway, when I saw him, I about lost it. I can contain most of my emotions and keep a clear head in toublesome times. As I have aged, I think I have lost some of that ability, especially when it come to the affairs of the heart. There are times when the death of a loved one or a friend can affect me and my composure, but when it comes to somebody realizing the richness of life and the blessings of it, that’s when I can start the sniffling like Paw Powell. But that’s a good thing, to quote Martha Stewart.
After we were wed (meaning the ceremony was finished) we shook the hands of all the guests as they exited the church. Then we took pictures inside the air-conditioned building as they waited on us outside in the heat. I just now realized that part. No wonder we got pounded so hard with the rice.
All the sweetness of our love was captured in the photos by Andy Hern. Then we moved out to the porch for the bouquet toss and the garter gathering. There’s one really devilish pic of me as I found the garter on my wife’s thigh. It weren’t no put on.
Anyway, we got pelted with rice and ran down the sidewalk to my waiting truck. The only vehicle owned by either of us. It was all decorated and we ran around to get in. No keys. I looked for Ralph. His requirements for pictures were taken care of pretty early in the proceedings and he had left the premises. With my keys.
Now, mind you, this was in the days prior to cell phones. So, Janee’s Daddy loaded us into his big Cadillac, only the second time I had ever ridden in one. The other time was in a funeral procession. We have a pic of us beside the truck with no keys and one of us in the backseat of Burl’s car.
After riding to Janee’s Aunt Nina’s place, we changed clothes and were preparing for our trip to Gatlinburg for the honeymoon. Daddy tracked down the preacher at a local restaurant and retrieved my keys, brought the truck to Nina’s, losing a hubcap in the process (it was later located). Just about the time we were to leave, Nina came up with the bright idea of opening all the wedding gifts that were brough to her house after the cermony. About a hundred of them. It all had to be acknowledged, a list written down of the gift and the giver and so on. That’s Nina and she’s still the same.
I was afraid that with all the delays our room would not be held. But, eventually, we satisfied our requirements (what requirements, it was OUR wedding) and made our way to Tennessee. A newly married couple, with my bride in the MIDDLE of the seat, in a pickup truck. Luggage in the back.
I knew everything was as it should be when we got to the room, turned on the TV and saw The Osborne Brothers singing Rocky Top on Nashville Now.
Last Thursday night, we went out to eat a nice steak and celebrated, in our own diminshed way, the 25 years spent together since that first night. Man it’s been good. If the next 25 go by as fast at this first 25, I better start preparing NOW!
Tags: 25 years, August, cell phones, century, ceremony, Daddy, gaffney, garter, Gatlinburg, gifts, pickup truck, pictures, preacher, quarter, rice, South Carolina, tennessee, the osborne Brothers, wedding
