Anniversaries

Today would have been my parents 63rd wedding anniversary. They were married July 20, 1946, in Fremont, Ohio.

As the story goes, they went to be witnesses with friends of theirs who were eloping. Apparently mom & dad's conversation went something like this:

Hank: Well, we're here. Why don't we get married.
Kaye: Okay.

When they got back to Michigan they didn't tell anyone for three weeks. Maybe Aunt Margie knew. You see, my parents were both living in same boarding house. My dad lived with his father; mom lived with her sister. Neither Hank nor Kaye were employed at the time. Neither wanted to face the censure from his family (she's Catholic!) and her family (he's not Catholic!). Seriously.

Somewhere, three weeks later, the cat got let out of the bag and they were able to live as hubby and wifey.

Fast forward to July 20, 1969. Hank and Kaye were celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary when Neil Armstrong made his "Giant leap for Mankind."

My parents were lucky enough to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Not many couples are able to do that, either through death or divorce. They actually ended up celebrating 56 years together.

So even though the rest of the US might be celebrating the moonwalk, I'm remembering how NASA celebrated my parent's anniversary!