August 19, 1968 - St. Louis, MO
Well 45 years ago George and I got married in Missouri. Here we are me in my hot pink mini dress, and of course George looking like a Punker. I was just 15 years old, and he was 17 years old. We had to elope to Missouri with our Moms because we needed someone to sign due to our ages. So why did we get married in St. Louis? Well because in Wisconsin you couldn't get married that young unless I was pregnant. Now is that a dumb law or what? LOL LOL Was I pregnant? No way. I didn't even want any children that young, it was quite a few years before I even considered it. Anyway, dumb law, we married because we truly loved each other. Just plain and simple, we just loved each other. No hidden motives, no reason other than that. Like why were we suppose to have a reason other than that, I mean isn't that the purpose of marrying? You love each other, and are each other's best friend.
When we pulled into St. Louis we were unaware that the World Series was being played there at that time. Oh my gosh, we couldn't find a place to stay anywhere. We had to go way outside of the city to a small area off the express way. It was a dumpy little motel that only had one room, with two full size beds available....lol lol no A/C, no frills no thrills. Oh we had the biggest laugh, but one thing, it was cheap, so we didn't care. We were all in the same room having fun as usual. My younger sister was with and she loved it, they had a huge cat, and a swimming pool with a giant crack down the center...lol lol my sister Mary Ann kept putting pennies in the pop machine and making everyone mad.
The wedding went perfect other than it was 100 degrees, and humidity that was like an Amazon jungle...lol lol We didn't care though, we had so much fun with our Moms, always did.
The next day after our wedding we all wanted to do something fun so we went to the Meriamec Caverns. We arrived at the caverns and had such a fun day, it was really cool down there so a wonderful respite from the heat and sun. It truly was beautiful. We came out of the caverns and started down the highway home. Along the way we saw all these trailers tossed around. Some were completely torn apart with only a toilette left. As we got closer to the motel the debris was strewn everywhere. While we were underground in the cavern a tornado struck. We pulled into the motel lot and all the windows were blown out of the cars parked there, and junk all around. The motel was only slightly damaged and our room was untouched. Weird! Like George said, "Wow Thank God we were underground and didn't even have a clue what was going on above the ground". That was really lucky, we felt bad for everyone else though. Sad!
So for our wedding dinner we all went to a Truck Stop. The owner was so thrilled and tickled that they had a wedding couple in their diner. Him and his wife were so lovely, and kind. She even went out and bought us all a cake, that was decorated so nice and a bottle of wine. lol lol My Mom and George's Mom said, "Oh how wonderful, but don't give George and Maureen any wine, we don't want to get you into trouble...lol lol We didn't like wine anyway, so didn't bother us. We had a great time, so much fun, and it was memorable.
45 years have gone by so fast, can't believe it. Truly seems like yesterday, except when I look at the old photos...bwhahhahahaha!
