After my Mother died, I told my Father that I wanted to clean out his house. To get it down to a bare minimum, so when the time came, it would be easier to deal with. What I've learned from doing that over the past five years is this -- you're left with the most cherished items. The excess has been cleared away, leaving those items that evoke the best, and sometimes funniest, yet hard-to-face memories.
In my Father's dresser drawers, I found my parents' marriage license. As I read the few words that appeared on it, I was reminded of this paper represented the starting point of a 55-year marriage.
Fifty-five years...! Fifty plus five equals fifty-five...! How many of us can say that we stuck it out for half-a-century with the same person? None of their three kids can say they have. My parents came from the generation before quality time. They knew how to stick together. Many of their classmates got married and lasted just as long. They were children of the Depression and war years, when people learned how to stick it out.
I admit they had to marry. Wink-wink. Sometimes, I wonder what they would have done if it hadn't been for the one moment of passion. At least, I hope there was passion. But nevertheless, the marriage lasted for 55 years.
Fifty-five years! I can't even get to a second date let alone spend the next 55 years with the same person.
This marriage also lead to a long-lasting family feud. The age old tale of feud between son-in-law and mother-in-law. My Father liked to tell the "shot gun" story. About how he got so angry at my Grandma Alford that he stuck a shot gun in her face and told her to get out of his house. More about her later.
My Father had anger issues like his own Mother. Both flew off the handle over trivialities. I remember one time while my Grandma Marshall was visiting. We were watching a movie on our newly installed cable television. Cable was all the rage back then. I believe the movie may have had Angie Dickenson in it. Or some other blond actress from the late 1970s. Anyway, during the course of the film, the actress was talking to someone and she called him "a son of a bitch." At which point, Grandma Marshall stood up off the couch and said "Did you just hear what she said?" She couldn't believe her ears. This coming from the Grandmother who probably said those exact same words numerous times in her life. I guess she felt that saying on television for the whole nation to hear was a little too much.
I realize now that Grandma Marshall was quite the woman in her early days. One time, probably during the same visit, Grandma Marshall sat down on the living room couch and I was sitting on the other side of the room. In the middle of her gray housecoat, a questionable-bulge (much like an erection) popped up as she sat down. Grandma Marshall looked down at it and said, and I quote, "Well what did you see that got you all excited?" She proceeded to flatten out the bulge. A tell-tale sign of where I got my mischievous nature. I grin to this day when I see that video clip in my head.
CSM
In my Father's dresser drawers, I found my parents' marriage license. As I read the few words that appeared on it, I was reminded of this paper represented the starting point of a 55-year marriage.
Fifty-five years...! Fifty plus five equals fifty-five...! How many of us can say that we stuck it out for half-a-century with the same person? None of their three kids can say they have. My parents came from the generation before quality time. They knew how to stick together. Many of their classmates got married and lasted just as long. They were children of the Depression and war years, when people learned how to stick it out.
I admit they had to marry. Wink-wink. Sometimes, I wonder what they would have done if it hadn't been for the one moment of passion. At least, I hope there was passion. But nevertheless, the marriage lasted for 55 years.
Fifty-five years! I can't even get to a second date let alone spend the next 55 years with the same person.
This marriage also lead to a long-lasting family feud. The age old tale of feud between son-in-law and mother-in-law. My Father liked to tell the "shot gun" story. About how he got so angry at my Grandma Alford that he stuck a shot gun in her face and told her to get out of his house. More about her later.
My Father had anger issues like his own Mother. Both flew off the handle over trivialities. I remember one time while my Grandma Marshall was visiting. We were watching a movie on our newly installed cable television. Cable was all the rage back then. I believe the movie may have had Angie Dickenson in it. Or some other blond actress from the late 1970s. Anyway, during the course of the film, the actress was talking to someone and she called him "a son of a bitch." At which point, Grandma Marshall stood up off the couch and said "Did you just hear what she said?" She couldn't believe her ears. This coming from the Grandmother who probably said those exact same words numerous times in her life. I guess she felt that saying on television for the whole nation to hear was a little too much.
I realize now that Grandma Marshall was quite the woman in her early days. One time, probably during the same visit, Grandma Marshall sat down on the living room couch and I was sitting on the other side of the room. In the middle of her gray housecoat, a questionable-bulge (much like an erection) popped up as she sat down. Grandma Marshall looked down at it and said, and I quote, "Well what did you see that got you all excited?" She proceeded to flatten out the bulge. A tell-tale sign of where I got my mischievous nature. I grin to this day when I see that video clip in my head.
CSM
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