Today Is Our 50th Wedding Anniversary - We Made It!

Fifty years ago today, my husband and I were married in the little United Methodist church in our northeastern Oklahoma hometown. It was a chilly, cloudy, misty day. Our church was undergoing a renovation, and my Daddy was concerned about "the mess", so he spent part of his day sweeping debris off the sidewalk with a broom. I didn't hear about this until days later, and it made me cry! That night he walked me down the aisle. Even though we had rehearsed waiting at the entrance to the sanctuary, I kept walking forward and he gently tugged me back, and we laughed. It was a funny sweet moment I'll always remember, along with being surprised to see tears in my soon-to-be husband's eyes as I walked toward him.

My colors were dark pink and white, and I did not want little bride and groom figures on my cake!

Because of the renovation, our Fellowship Hall was not available for the reception, and we "borrowed" a Fellowship Hall in the Baptist church just down the street. All of us walked down the block in a light mist, but no one complained!

After the reception, we drove to Fountainhead State Lodge, about a two-hour drive south. We had a bite of cake at our wedding (and it was good!), but neither of us had eaten much during the day, so we were hungry. (In 1969, serving a meal at a wedding was not common!) It was too late for a restaurant, so the vending machines supplied our wedding supper - peanut butter crackers and Coke - and it was delicious!

Our honeymoon was spent driving through the hills of Arkansas and Missouri, and we still talk about the breath-taking beauty of autumn leaves on that drive. It was like neither of us had ever noticed autumn colors before! We went to two theme parks - Dogpatch USA in Arkansas and Silver Dollar City in Missouri. We were still just kids at age 21, so we had a great time! We ended up having so much fun and were so reluctant to get back to our college classes that we extended our trip an extra day. My Daddy's boss had given us a check for $100.00, which seemed a fortune to us at the time, so that completely paid for our honeymoon.

College dance, circa 1968

We started dating when we were freshmen in high school. Our first "date" was a band trip to a roller skating rink. We rode the school bus and held hands. On the ride back, he leaned in for a kiss and I leaned toward him. We hit a bump in the road and our lips kind of collided. My braces caused a little cut on the inside of my lip, but I didn't care. After we got back and left the band room, we had a real first kiss outside on the tennis court, and that one was magic. We attended the same church and the same college, and we graduated together in 1970.

Jeff and Jenni and us, Christmas 2017

During our 50 years of marriage, we were blessed with our amazing son and daughter, Jeff and Jenni, and they have given us a wonderful daughter-in-law, Susan, and great son-in-law, Chris, and five beautiful grandchildren - Brandon - 20, Sydney - 18, Samantha - 16, Delaney - 3, and Everett - 5 months.

July 4, 2019. L-R me, Jenni, Samantha in front of Randy, Delaney, Sydney, Jeff (behind Sydney), Brandon's girlfriend Prescilla in front of Brandon, and Susan. Buddy the dog is in front!
Not pictured is son-in-law Chris, who was on a trip, and Everett, who was taking a nap.
We hope to get everyone in the picture at Thanksgiving!

We haven't been good in recent years about taking decent photos of ourselves, so here is my favorite from our anniversary 5 years ago, when he had more hair and I had fewer wrinkles!

Here is a more recent photo from our birthday celebration in 2018:

It has been a fast 50 years, and I am so thankful that we are still in love, still in good health, and still laugh together!