April 24, 1971

It was a cold, blustery day for an April 24th. But it was the beginning of our lives together, and we hardly noticed. Snow flakes whipped through the frigid air as we waited outside the front of the church for the car to come around for us. The photo my dad took that day shows us looking off together at something. Our future?

It was 35 years ago today that Kathy and I were married. We started celebrating back in January with the cruise, and that ring. We have spent the last few days happily reminiscing about that April day, and the days that followed.

Our honeymoon—consisting of one night in the Columbus Sheraton because it was halfway between Cleveland and Athens, where I was a junior at OU. Our first apartment—the landlady never did install that heater, though that place probably had the biggest kitchen we’ve ever had since. The soundtrack was Carly Simon, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.” I used to hear it when Kathy was working 3-11 at the hospital. Very depressing.

For our tenth anniversary, I put together surprise photo album for her. I just pulled it out now. Here is the poem I wrote for the introduction:

“Ten Years”

“I used to think that ten years was a long time.
When I was ten, I couldn’t imagine being twenty.
When I was twenty, I felt that thirty wasn’t far off.
When I was thirty, I knew forty was coming fast.

Now we have been married for ten years.
We have had three cars and thirteen addresses.
We have had eight different landlords in three states.
We have celebrated thirty-seven birthdays for five of us.

We have paid twenty thousand, eight hundred and forty dollars
in rent.
We have driven one hundred and one thousand miles.
Now we don’t pay rent.
Now we can walk to wherever we want to go.

We have had three children.
Or have we been had by three children?
Anyway, we used six thousand, four hundred and fifty-six Pampers,
And washed six thousand, five hundred and seventy bottles.

You have cooked and served 33,047 family meals,
While working 17,420 hours in two hospitals,
Two nursing homes and one summer camp;
On days, nights and afternoons.

I just thought you might be interested in these few facts.
Figuring all this out gave me time to think about all we’ve done,
And I decided it would be good to put it all in a book.
And dedicate it to the one person who shared it all with me—you.”
______________________________________________________

So today, we went to work like any other day, but I delighted in telling different individuals at the office just what day it was. The flowers I had ordered for Kathy hit about 2pm and had the desired impact.

After all these years, I still got it.