Married in the Back of a Car
Today is Story Day. We've really had a great opportunity to hear people tell some interesting tales as we sit and visit and get to know them in the past few months. As a result, I have been thinking lately that I should tell some of the more interesting ones here - with any incriminating details left out, of course.
Today, however, I want to tell you a story about Jason's grandfather. A few weeks ago at his 90th birthday party, he was recounting different stories about his life. In the midst of these was the fact that he and Jason's grandmother were married in the back of a car, which seemed to surprise most who were listening.
I suppose being married in a car isn't as interesting as being born in the back of the car, or as eyebrow-raising as being conceived...well, you get the idea. But it is interesting.
It seems that on their wedding day, Granddad Ted picked up Grandma Mary at her family home in Moundsville, West Virginia and they went to the house of a resident preacher to perform the ceremony. No parents, siblings, or friends to stand up for them. Just the two - or, rather, three of them.
Unfortunately, it came to light before the ceremony that Granddad had actually had picked up the marriage license across the river, which was actually in Ohio.
"I can't marry you," the preacher said. "We're in the wrong state." Fortunately, this was West Virginia, which is at its largest a smaller state, and they were right on border, besides. So, Granddad and Grandma piled into the car with the Preacher, and they drove across the bridge until they were in Ohio. They pulled over, and he married them right there.
Then off they went on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls.
I may think about this story the next time I hear of someone planning an elaborate wedding, with lots of bridesmaids and dresses and cakes and thousands of those tiny pastel mints.
Jason's grandparents were married many happy and blessed years. And to think it all started in the back of a car.
You may have head this story. I'll let your Grandmother Anderson tell it in her words.
"...Leon worked at a flour mill, then got a "good" job with Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. that paid $80 a month. With a salary like that and house rent $20 a month, we decided to marry.
Our wedding was much like others in those days. We borrowed a car from my brother, Carl - went by the preacher's house at 8am Sunday for a short ceremony - ate dinner with the Andersons, back to our house that was ready for occupancy."
And then there's my parents, who left the high school one day, went down to the courthouse in Corpus and got married. At the end of the school day, they each went to their own homes. They concluded to "date" until my Grandmother Brown found birth control stuff while putting away laundry in my dad's underwear drawer and the truth came out.