After the past eight years of writing, I am now aware that I may be repeating myself when I write about anything in my life. I have written a lot about my days in the Delaware City Schools system, as well as about my family. I have also written a lot about my jobs. But today, I am absolutely sure that I have not written anything about having gotten married 65 years ago.
Just this past Thursday, on Jan. 25, we spent the day thinking about that day back in 1959 when a lot of people we knew came to the church and watched George and me get married. It was a warm day for January, and there was a big flood going on in the vicinity.
It was in 1957 that I first met George at our church, and we ended up getting married there in 1959. And we have continued to go there for the past 65 years. It was a nice wedding with family members being in the wedding, and a classmate of George’s played the organ, and another classmate sang. Our reception was in the basement after the ceremony. We had the usual refreshments that most people had back in the ‘50s: wedding cake and punch. As we left the church to go on our honeymoon, someone had tied a “Just Married” sign and some tin cans onto the back of our car.
Our church hasn’t changed too much in the past 65 years. During that time period, we have had 21 different ministers, several different organists, all sizes of choirs, several very good Sunday School teachers, and a lot of funerals. Back during the time of our wedding, we had about 90 people coming every Sunday. And we always had a choir wearing their green robes. We also had several women’s groups that no longer exist.
When my parents had their 50th wedding anniversary party, I thought they were very old. I don’t feel as old as I thought they were back then. There was a big party for them in our brother’s home. Our younger daughter was only 3 years old at that time. She was wanting a piece of cake as soon as we got there but was told she had to wait. She still wanted to have a piece, so one of my sisters told her that she couldn’t have a piece of the decorated cake on display, but if she went to the kitchen, someone would give her a piece of the sheet cake. The next day when asked about her grandparents’ party, she said, “They had 2 cakes: a lookin’ cake and an eaten’ cake.” That was 50 years ago, and we still laugh about it.
Since I have just written about two pieces of cake from my parents’ anniversary party, I will tell you another story about two pieces of cake. Last week when we were eating out at Amato’s, we had a great pizza and sub. A couple of hours later I was hungry for some desert, so we stopped downtown for a piece of cake.
It was the middle of the afternoon and no one was in the restaurant but us and the waitress. When we asked what they had for desert, she said they only had two pieces of cake still in the kitchen. One was chocolate with chocolate icing, and the other was a layered cake with a lot of white icing. So, we ordered them both.
They were great. It was when the bill came that we found they were $10 for each piece. Only because it was our 65th anniversary did we gladly pay the $20 plus tax, and then laughed about it all the way home.
Kay E. Conklin is a retired Delaware County recorder who served four terms. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology and anthropology.
