CELEBRATION TIME

56 YEARS AND STILL COUNTING!

SUNDAY IS OUR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ---

SEPTEMBER 7, 1958

Celebration plans of the best kind: 
 church -- out for lunch -- day spent with the grandkids!

Did you know that the first Sunday in September after labor day is National Grandparent's Day?  It was designated as such by President Carter in 1978.  This year it happens to fall on our wedding anniversary!!

Hope you get to celebrate with your special young people, too.

THIS, THAT, AND THEN SOME MORE!

September 7th will be our 55th wedding anniversary, another milestone.  It seems like just yesterday I posted about our 50th and the celebration trip to London, Paris, Maine, and Nova Scotia.  Time flies.  I'm sure that when I was young there were more than 7 days in a week.  

No trip for us this time.  We decided to redo the kitchen instead.  Nothing really major; no wall moving!  It all started with a discussion about the need for a new sink.  You know how that goes -- "Well, we might as well do this, this, and this!!"  We'll see how far our budget takes us.  I see a lot of 'take-out'/ 'going-out to eat' in my future.  Does anybody figure that expense into a kitchen redo?  Maybe we should have planned another trip to Europe.

Back to the anniversary.  I was looking for a picture of our wedding that I haven't already shown you, and came across this 'going-away' picture. 

  I spent more time picking out this outfit than I did picking out the wedding dress (hanging in the background, never to be worn again).  Where did I think we were going away to? A hat and gloves?? -- remember it was the 1950s!  No honeymoon for us as we had to immediately get back to school and new jobs.  We left the reception at about 5:30, and headed to Pueblo, an hour away.  

We planned to stop for dinner before heading north on our way to school.  Upon arriving at the restaurant, I immediately went to the restroom to empty the rice from my clothes as it was really uncomfortable.  I loosened my waistband, and the rice poured out.  The little old ladies that were powdering their noses in the restroom got a kick out of my antics.  I received a lot of matronly advice, a couple of hugs and best wishes from these friendly strangers.  In the meantime, Bob was sitting at the table alone probably thinking I had bolted from the marriage for sure.  I was gone in that restroom for a REALLY long time!

I've been thinking about that going-away brown wool suit lately.  It's sealed up in the attic somewhere.  You know how I love to find wool clothes at the thrift store, deconstruct them, and use them in my sewing projects.  That suit is a lovely shade of brown - ummmmm.  It's safe from my scissors for now, as I recently found four nice wool skirts at four different thrift stores for a total of less than $10 for all four.

Well, since I don't have to cook dinner, guess I'll hide away in my sewing room away from the dust and destruction of the kitchen, and try to finish a couple of wool projects.  

Wool project #1 (in process)

Wool Project #2 (in process)

And here is the very beginning of the kitchen redo -- first thing, that curvy board over the sink is out of here.  New cupboard doors are being made; new moldings on the soffit are going up;  choices have been ordered for counter tops, etc.; paint chips abound!  Mess will only increase, I'm sure.

This rather wordy, long post will be it for a little while, as I'll be taking a blog break.  Hopefully, I will return soon with some blog-worthy projects, and with an update and/or reveal of the kitchen redo.

Please check out the following blogs for their weekly parties.
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday
Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday
Our Home Away from Home for Tuesdays at our Home
Cozy Little House for Tweak it Tuesday
No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House
Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
My thanks to the above blogs for always hosting these fun events.

CLASS REUNION, ANNIVERSARY, ETC.

I'm taking a three-week blogging break. First up on our agenda is our 55th high school class reunion in our hometown. The picture below of us was on the front page of the local newspaper the day we graduated - June 1, 1956. I guess we were chosen to be photographed because Bob was the Senior Class President.
Doesn't Bob just look like he is poised and ready to tackle whatever the future might hold? At the time, I wasn't sure I would be part of that future; but things clicked and I've been a part of it all along the way through his three college degrees, his career, our children and our grandchildren.

Then, we have a road trip scheduled to celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary this month. We're headed to Marburger/Round Top, Texas for the antique extravaganza. We hope to come home the very long way through Kansas City to visit friends.
September 7, 1958

I've been working on a couple of large projects for the class reunion, so my house has suffered terribly. I need to find time during this next three weeks to do some deep cleaning and prepare for the autumnal holidays and our family's birthday season. Also, I keep thinking we need to make a day trip to Denver to visit the new IKEA store. That's a lot going on for us old folks!

We thank God for all of the blessings that have been bestowed on us over the years. And, we celebrate with Him each new day that we receive.

As we used to say in the 1950s, "See you later, alligator. After awhile, crocodile!"

MOSAIC MONDAY - THE WEDDING

It is Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House.
Please check out her blog for a list of this week's participants; plus take a look at the wonderful portrait photography that she is doing these days.

Not only is it Mosaic Monday, it is also Labor Day and our 51st wedding anniversary. Last year on our 50th I posted about marriage - click here if you are interested. This year, I thought I would talk about The Wedding! Weddings were different back in the 1950s in our community than they are today. Even a large wedding was simple. Ceremonies usually took place on Sunday afternoon as most people worked on Saturday. They were held in the bride's church, which was usually decorated with lots of fresh flowers. I suppose our wedding was considered quite large with 300 guests, but there was no fancy meal; just a reception at our house with cake, nuts, mints and punch. My parents had a large house with a finished basement and a beautiful backyard, and could well accommodate that many people. It was a gorgeous, September day.

In those days, the marriage was between a husband and a wife, but THE WEDDING was between the bride and her mother. Even the announcement in the local paper of the engagement had only a picture of the bride-to-be, and the up-coming nuptials were announced by only the parents of the future bride. Funny as it may seem, the groom was almost an after thought. All he had to do was show up the day of the wedding with the ring!!!!

In our small town, brides almost always had a formal, studio picture taken the week before the wedding that was then used in the newspaper with the details after the wedding.

Mother and I did all of the planning together, and I only remember having a small disagreement about the plates to use for the cake. With so many people, she thought we should use paper plates; but even then I loved dishes. You can see in the bottom left picture that I won out. We used Mother's large collection of Fostoria glass plates. She hired someone to wash dishes as they were used! Thank you, Mother - to this day I love using her Fostoria. I remember how beautiful and young my Mother looked that day - pretty enough to be the bride herself as she had just turned 39 years old the day before the wedding.

I'm eternally grateful that Bob showed up that day with the ring. I can't imagine what the last 51 years would have been like without him. It has been a wonderful life!!