Wedding Gifts

Recently, our pastor reminded us to "Live our lives in a manner that would allow us to sell the family parrot to the town gossip". A great challenge with which we have a bit of experience.

My better looking half and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. I used to look at people that had been married that long and think... "They're so OLD!!" And while I wanted to stay married forever, together through thick and thin, I really never wrapped my head around what that would mean. Like, the better part of my whole life!! We've been married way longer than we were unmarried and you'll be happy to know that we're not near as old as people used to be when they were married that long!

But when we got married, it was kind of the beginning of wedding registries, and weddings weren't the ridiculously expensive affairs they are now. Ours  ended up being much bigger than we had planned, but I had a huge family, and ultimately we wanted those who were special to us to be included, so we just went with the flow. Even though large, we kept it pretty simple and enjoyed the day.

We experienced many of the wedding traumas that you hear about. 1/2 of our wedding pictures didn't turn out because evidently, the film (yes children, actual film) didn't wind up in the camera and when the photographer opened it up it kind of sproinged out like a joke can of peanuts.  All that were taken before the wedding were lost, so other than a couple of fuzzy photos that were snapped with an instamatic camera that one of the bridesmaids had, we don't have any leading up to it.

I was VERY late getting to the church, and my better half's grandmother was pacing and wringing her hands in fear that I wouldn't show. We had dated four long years waiting for this day and standing him up was the last thing on my mind. In my defense, it was a very long and busy day leading up to the ceremony, and I was ready to go on time. A friend of my dad's ended up driving me to the church, and in a very calm way, reminded me that nothing could start until I arrived. Sweet sweet man. 

The ceremony finally began and went off without a hitch. My better half wore his dress USAF uniform and on the cassette tape (the very best technology money could buy) you can hear people gasp when he came in. And while friends and family, bridesmaids in gold and yellow dresses wearing big sun hats and carrying baskets of flowers, and groomsmen in brown tuxedos with yellow ruffled shirts and velvet bow ties looked on, we finally tied the knot. 

 May 27, 1978

No one loved me enough to tell me that in later years, my color choices would bring uproarious laughter from my teenagers. It was popular. I just wanted to get married. What did I know?? The icing on the cake, so to speak, was the fountain that was a part of our wedding cake. I asked for yellow food coloring in the water to "match" the wedding. Again, no one loved me enough to question me. *insert laughing emoji here!*

The best and most fun part of the day came when we all trooped back to my folks house and actually opened the wedding gifts. An amazing creative and precious assortment provided by people who cared for us. Included was an awesome macrame wall hanging and a harvest gold hand mixer. I loved the 70's! But by far, the most unique gift we received was living and breathing.

A couple of my friends gave us a cockatiel, already finger trained and complete with a cage. Yes, folks, that would be a bird. Neither of us had ever had a bird. We named him "Hot Pongo" and he was a lot of fun. We taught him how to talk and he picked up some simple tunes. We even took him outside when we worked in the yard and he happily sat in a tree or bush and supervised. His wings were kept trimmed, but one time he did take flight and ended up at our neighbors house a few doors down before we caught up with him.

Hot Pongo loved Doritos and even though they gave him horrendous breath, we let him eat them. He also liked sitting on the edge of our cereal bowls to share breakfast. Anything shiny always caught his eye, and he decided that the diamond on my ring was intriguing so he bit it off. Yes, you read that right.

He spent his days with free run of wherever we happened to be living at the time, and his favorite place was always in front of a mirror, talking and singing happily. He discovered that if he put his head in a corner or in an enclosed space, it made his sounds really fun, so he experimented a lot with that. Hot Pongo was truly a gift that kept on giving. 

We had another cockatiel in later years, but she wasn't near as much fun as our first baby bird. 

Thankfully, we had nothing to be embarrassed about when we introduced our "parrot"... usually. Except when people found out that his favorite enclosed space to sing was actually into our mouths. Great acoustics, evidently.

May 27, 2018

Guard my soul and deliver me;

Do not let me be ashamed, 

for I take refuge in You.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,

For I wait for You. 

Psalm 23:20-21

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Bye, I Love You

Every time I leave the airport, I tend to reflect. This time was no different. I think about the number of airports I've driven away from, the number of times that bags have been pulled from the back of the car, the number of curbside kisses and hugs and reminders to "be safe". How many times have I said the words "I love you" amidst the cacophony of sounds of jet engines cycling up, screeching tires, and the smell of various and sundry kinds of exhaust?

  

Pinning on those wings!

The airports are all different. Some military, some civilian. Some small operations, some are of the huge international variety. I've driven away in sweltering heat, freezing cold with ice and snow covered roads, sometimes when the sun is out, but most of the time it's "0'dark thirty". We change places in the car and I get in the drivers seat, close the door, wave good bye one last time, take a deep breath and drive away. For years I've done this. Different jets and different cities, but the experience has always been universal and included the same things in the same order. 

 

Leaving the airport this time was the same as it's always been. My handsome half, dressed in his sharp uniform with 4 stripes on the sleeves and the shiny gold wings over the breast pocket, went to work. He loves his job and I do too. It may have it's challenges for both of us, but it's what he's always wanted to do, and what makes him happy, makes me happy. I can't imagine being married to a 9 to 5ver. What would that be like? He spent some time on the management side of the operation for awhile and I got a bit of a taste, but even that job included weird schedules and absences.

The man I married decided he wanted to fly at 6 or 7, actually started to fly at 14 and has been sitting in the front seat gazing out the windscreen ever since. For 47 years he's literally been seeing the world from the best seat in the house. He's explored the spaces from sea level to 51,000 feet and everything in between all over the world, experienced inflight emergencies, flown in every kind of weather imaginable; he even got the news at altitude that I was in labor and managed to make it home in time to experience the birth of our second daughter. 

It's been an amazing ride for me as well. The first time in my life that I ever flew was at barely 17 years old, on August 17, 1974 with him, my 18 year old boyfriend, at the controls. We took a 2 seater airplane on a journey to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California. They had good buffalo burgers at the FBO on Catalina so we flew over and enjoyed a great lunch before flying home. On the way back, he turned the airplane on it's side so that I could get a good view of the boat races that were going on in the ocean below us. 

 I've gotten to do things because of his career that most can't imagine. I sat on the grass between two runways while he did touch and go's in a supersonic jet. I looked up from our back patio while he flew over the house so low that I would have sworn I could count the rivets if he'd only slowed down. LOUD. That was very loud. I stood in the cockpit while the jet did touch and go's. I've flown flight simulators, experienced in-flight vertigo, and I know what his symptoms of hypoxia are after seeing him in an altitude chamber. He made sure I understood the  controls, and the order of business so that if there was ever a need, I could land what we were flying. We've "lived a lot of places, done a lot of things, and collected a lot of stuff". I see a hashtag in there somewhere!

We dated for 4 years before we got married and today, May 27, 2017 marks our 39th wedding anniversary. As has been the case on several anniversaries, he isn't home. But I have high hopes that he'll make it before midnight. 

May 27, 1978

It's been a good life. I wish I could do it over again just for the fun of it!  I'm beyond blessed.

Intreat me not to leave thee,

or to return from following after thee:

For whither though goest,

I will go;

and where though lodgest, 

I will lodge:

Thy people shall be my people,

and thy God my God:

Where thou diest, will I die,

and there will I be buried:

The Lord do so to me,

and more also,

if ought but death part thee and me.

Ruth 1:16-17 

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