25 years? I can do that standing on my head ;-)

June 18th, 1983, a day that will live in infamy! No, wait, wasn't that Dec. 7th, 1941??
Yeah, that is right; June 18th was a nice day! :-)

I remember standing up front, feeling a little dizzy and confused, looking back, waaaay back to the back of the hallway, seeing this really beautiful girl in white, wondering who the heck she was, then figuring out "Oh Man!That is my Julie!! Never saw her all dressed up nice. That is definitely not a Denny's uniform."

The music started and people started moving and Dr Jimmy came up and said some stuff. I had rehearsed it a couple days before so I knew what to say and did not screw it up and then i got to kiss her (Do NOT mess up her makeup!! There are pictures to take!!!!) and we went outside and inside everywhere and took pics and finally the food came.

We had a reception in the church and I found out that tons of people knew who I was and my name and all (Who was that? Does she go to church here??) The cake was neat: Julie's little brother's fiance's father had known Julie forever, so he gave us a WWII Japanese bayonet to cut the cake. I heard some comments about it being in bad taste, but the did not hear my mom every Pearl Harbor Day - "Beware the wily Japanese!!!!! Never forget what they did!!!!!" I just thought it was kind of fitting, using a spoil of the Big War to get started with our marriage. We got a whole lot of great gifts. One, a needlepoint from Carol Werner that is hanging on my wall upstairs. Another was a plunger, with the handle painted white with little hearts on it and a little corset hanging on it for decoration might be around somewhere, or it might have been lost in one of the last 2 moves. I still had it in Margate and I remember it at the apt before this one. That was from one of the people that new my name but I did not know her. I guess Julie knew her.

We went from there to my mom's townhouse. She had moved like two day's before to a new apartment but she left the furniture downstairs for the party. There was lots of food and family and all that. My Aunt made the Champagne Punch mom usually made for parties. I don't know what she did too it, but I was tripping on that stuff. It was a bit tense for a party: my mom and Julie's mom did not get along very well, yeah, that's right, they did not get along very well. We were talking about leaving soon, so Julie's sibs and friends went out and decorated the Cadillac that was sitting in the driveway. Ooops, I drove a Toyota Starlet. The stuck a few things on it and we bugged out for Parts North!

That was Fort Pierce at the Holiday Inn just off the turnpike. Julie was upset that I just signed my name to the receipt instead of Mr and Mrs blah blah. Sorry, it was not a hotel register, just a credit card receipt, oh well. I did carry her over the threshold. She did not like the fireman's carry I used. Sorry. I did not want to drop her or smack her head. I think we went to Red Lobster for dinner.

The next day we headed up to Disney World!! We stayed at the Howard Johnson's on the property so we could park and use the buses to get to parks. It was a great honeymoon. We are heading out tomorrow for a few days in Orlando. Not at Mouse World, this time it is at Fish World. I can't wait!!

It has been a long run. There were 5 couples married that summer in our church. We know 2 split, but the other 2 could still be together, though we have not heard from them in like 10 years. I did not hear it but Julie said the pastor that married up told her we would not last a year. It has not been easy, but we beat his prediction by quite a margin. We have a wonderful son in the army that will joining us this weekend.

Twenty Five more years? We will try, but Jesus will probably get back before then. We will see...

bt