Crooked Numbers

1977

Look at them. 

 Do these people look like they know what they doing?

Ok.  Let's try another shot or two.

Don't be fooled by his serious expression.  She is almost, but not quite, stifling uncontrollable giggling.  This is a solemn day, a sacred day, in the march of a person's time, but these folks are nearly giddy. Where are the grownups?  Won't someone shake an admonishing finger under these whippersnappers' noses?  This is not just a wedding.  It is MARRIAGE.

WHERE ARE THE ADULTS?

 Hmm..not here.  That's alot of soap and shaving cream.

What kind of car is that anyway?  What happened to the wheel covers? 

Jeez, doesn't she own any shoes?  And look at all that hair!!

Obviously, the whole outfit has no sense of responsibility.  They are even throwing RICE for goodness sake!  Guess there isn't much to worry about today: the bride and groom are going no farther than Union, Missouri for their wedding night. They will attempt to talk a waiter at an Italian restaurant out of a glass of wine...hey, its our wedding night!  But he, not impressed by the shiny new rings they spin nervously around their fingers, will card them, discover they are but 20 years of age, and consign them to temperance.  Suffice it to say the wedding party will not follow suit......

Age shouldn't be a disqualifying factor.  As the song says, 'They come from a long line....'

There is well over a century of married life in these two pictures. We should always look at our parent's wedding pictures; it tells us why we exist.  I know these two couples and can attest to the fact that:

Age cannot wither (them)her, nor custom stale (their)her infinite variety..(Shakespeare)

One of Blake's ongoing jests has to do with celebrations of uneven anniversaries, i.e., an 83rd birthday or a 58th anniversary. One might assume that those throwing the party have reason to think the celebrants won't make it to a traditional even number.  To be honest, I remember a similar discussion taking place behind the scenes when we had a big family get together for my grandparent's anniversary-that-was-not-their 50th.  Were we any the worse for breaking convention?  Did lightning strike because we had a party in an odd year?

 Nope.  

Thus it is with us.  We are in between, in one of the "crooked number "years.  In baseball slang, an inning in which one puts up a crooked number is a success.  In life, in the breadth of a marriage, a crooked number is a reason to celebrate....

So much to count, to commit to memory, to mark on the yard stick behind the closet door.  How many cups of coffee poured from how many pots?  How many overalls over the years?  How many country music songs have been hits, then golden oldies?  How many paperback books and picture albums (an ongoing tally!) How many Wildcat games, Indian games, Tiger games, Cardinal games? 

How many miles in cars, pickups, trucks and airplanes side by side.

Big big numbers.  Crooked numbers.

So.. there they are.  In the front seat of that god awful '76 Gran Torino.  It will probably need oil before they finish their honeymoon at Daniel Boone's home in Defiance and head back to Columbia to study.  That's as far as they're looking back in August of '77.  

From here, August of 2013, all I can say is:

  Let's keep putting up those crooked numbers.  

Happy Anniversary!