35 years have passed so quickly...

Thirty-five years ago today these two young pups married amid the throws of an ice storm. What memories that day holds for us. You see, on January 1st of 1974 an ice storm hit El Dorado knocking out the electricity to a large portion of the town. It just happened that the neighborhood in which my family lived was among those without electricity. Not only did our house not have electricity, but also the church where our wedding was to be held. Among the immediate issues caused by this outage were: the guys tuxes were stuck somewhere between El Dorado and Little Rock. (We decided they could wear whatever they had with them.) The lady who was catering my reception had to decorate my cake in the dark. (The cake as you can see looked great.) The music for the wedding which was supposed to be by organ, had to be changed to piano. Also, Mr. G had to keep tuning his violin because of the cold, damp conditions in the church. (The music sounded angelic.) We prayed that all those coming in for the wedding would be able to make it. We had family members and attendants coming from Missouri, Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Lousiana as well as other places in Arkansas. With the conditions as they were, we were very grateful that they all made it and had a place to stay at the motel in which I had made reservations. I had made the arrangements for everyone way ahead of time however, when the storm hit all the people in our neighborhood who were without electricity rushed down to the motel that fortunately had power. This was all fine except for the fact that the rooms I had reserved for all my families were now given away! After I had pre-wedding-stressed-out-bride fit, they somehow found rooms for everyone. The day of the wedding electricity had been restored to all homes within one block of the church. I met with Bro. Sam and the sound and video men from the church and we discussed moving the wedding to the motel because they had heat and electricity. But, I was determined to get married in our church so that was not an option. Fortunately, the wedding was scheduled for 2 PM because there was at least light from the stained glass windows inside the church. Also, the photographer had to take my pictures by "guesswork" as he called it because there was very little light to check his meters. The reception was held downstairs in the fellowship hall which was warm because they had turned on the burners and ovens on the stoves earlier in the day. Coleman lanterns and candles provided the lighting for the reception area. Although the wedding was very cold (29 degrees in the church) for the attendants in their summery, scooped-necked dresses, and for those attending the wedding, and the fact that there was no video of the occasion to look back on at a later time, it was still beautiful and a very special time. As my soon to be sister-in-law said, "Well, it won't be just another ho-hum wedding," and it wasn't. Bro. Sam always teased that he spits on the marital knot he ties during the ceremony so it will stay tied. This time he said that our marriage would definitely last, because the spit froze!
After all these years and all the ups and downs that have transpired we are still in love and consider the other our best friend.

And here we are 35 years later....