If you’re a long time reader you know my husband and I met and married in six days. He was on leave from the Marine Corps and came home to be with his family at Christmas. It was a hard time for him as the Beirut bombing was a few months before and he was deployed to the area at the time. On that horrible day he volunteered to help with the rescue efforts after a 12 hour night shift and no sleep. He took 5 bodies out of that building… some whole, some in pieces.
I’m sure all he wanted at that point was rest and relaxation. What he got was a wife.
We met. We fell in love. We got married six days later. And to be honest we would have done it sooner but we had to wait 2 days for the license.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
Some thought I was pregnant… which was even crazier.
But 39 years later here we are.
Our wedding took place at a Justice of the Peace office during a raging N’Or East blizzard. We were staying with his mother on the Island at the time and had to take a boat to the mainland in the storm. I wore a pink cashmere sweater and dove grey slacks with high heeled boots. There was no dress, no cake, no reception, no gifts. We had 3 witnesses. My mother, his mother and his step father. There was a champagne brunch at a lovely waterfront restaurant… period. We had to leave the next day and drive to North Carolina so he could report back to base.
I was never one of those young girls who dreamt of big fancy weddings. I’ve been to many of them that cost more than our first home, and you know what? Every single one of those couples is divorced. For me, the ceremony isn’t the important part. It’s the love and commitment that mean something.
We may not have an engraved sterling silver turkey baster or a drunken video of Uncle Ted giving a toast….. but we’re still in love and still happily married almost four decades later.
I’m an avid reader and start to twitch if my pile of unread material drops below a dozen.
I order so many books from Amazon I may be personally responsible for Jeff Bezos’s new yacht.
Our little local library can’t keep up with me and trying to buy books at thrift stores has me walking down the aisles shaking my head, ticking off titles and mumbling read it, read it, read it…..
Because there’s a little bit of child inside us all.
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The first thing that came to mind was my husband, but since that’s not an appropriate response?
I’ll have to go with this:
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It’s just an old dessert plate from Bavaria but it belonged to my mother and her mother before her. My grandmother was born in Austria and didn’t bring much with her when she emigrated to the states in 1923, but somehow this survived and was passed down to me. It’s not my style or taste, but there’s something about the kitchen continuity of the third generation of daughters still using this plate that makes me hold it dear.
How about you?
What’s the oldest thing still in use in your kitchen?
I’d love to say a green apple margarita or a strawberry basil martini…. but alas, it’s just a humble glass of freshly brewed unsweetened iced tea with lemon.
It’s my go to daily fluid and since I don’t drink coffee, what I wake up to every morning. I love hot tea, cold tea, black tea, herbal tea and yes, I even have a canister of strawberry chocolate tea. It’s a versatile leaf.
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No sugar, high in antioxidants… a lifetime supply? Bring it! I could do worse.
(As long as it’s not green tea. That tastes like swamp water.)
So what are you drinking for the rest of your life?