Thursday, June 7, 2012

Happy 32nd Anniversary!

Who are these thin, attractive young people?

Thirty-two years ago today we were married in The Netherlands. We rode to the ceremony in our 1928 Fiat in the misty rain.

My mom and dad were able to attend the wedding, and Dad was one of our three witnesses (J. and A. were the other two).

Mom was looking really beautiful and had her ringed fingers crushed by the Dutch farmers and their wives who pumped her hand in our receiving line. (They don't do that at weddings here anymore! Receiving lines, I mean.)

As this was Mom and Dad's first time to visit Europe, they tagged along on our honeymoon. From what I can remember, we all had a grand time.

Our delicious wedding cake was made by the local baker who asked if I wanted an American wedding cake. He said that he had made one 10 years before. My answer was NO, and I even ordered extra petit fours to feed the masses. (LOL) The baker told us that he dropped our first cake as he tried to walk it through his door and it slid off the board. So what we got was our second wedding cake! That must be the reason we have had such a good married life!

Although we of course missed having most of my family attending our wedding, we had lots of our friends, colleagues, Dutch family, and my in-law's neighbors help us celebrate under a huge tent in the backyard. I even experienced being lifted high above the crowd and shoved in the direction of my lifted hub for a wedding kiss. I was terrified! (Not of the kiss, but that the lifters might drop me.)

As a kind gesture to all of those who had traveled so far to attend our wedding, we had prepared sandwiches for the travelers. The local neighbors/farmers were the first ones to hit the trays of sandwiches that had not even made it out of the kitchen.

So that is how our life together began on June 7, 1980!

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