Mini Skirts & Slow Dances- The Proposal- The Wedding Day- The Honeymoon- You Can't Get Lost- Canada/Niagra Falls

    

As I was looking through the Camera

to take this picture of Mary at

Drury Dam Park it hit me.  I can't let this

girl get away!

  MINI SKIRTS & SLOW DANCES---I'm not sure  when my sister, Arlene, told Mary this,  after we were seriously dating,  after we were engaged or after we were married.  She told Mary that until I met her [Mary] I detested mini skirts & slow dances.  I had kind of forgotten that, but, I do remember, when I was high school age, I thought they both created unnecessary distractions or temptations.  But by the time I was serious about Mary I enjoyed slow dances because it let me be close to her.  We did go to a few dances but  I don’t remember where.  Maybe the County Fair or Town Festivals.  As for Mary in mini skirts, one word describes it,  "WOW!''   There's now other way to say it, Mary just looked Great  in a mini skirt. I think we had been married awhile when Mary told me about Arlene telling her.  She said had really laughed  & could hardly believe what she had heard.  She obviously was remembering how much I enjoyed looking at her & dancing with her.  I had always thought makeup detracts from the beauty of a woman, rather that enhancing her looks.  One of the first things I noticed about Mary was that she didn’t wear makeup, so I was always telling her how beautiful she looked, which she did, but also hoping  she would never start thinking she should start wearing makeup & lipstick.

 NATIONAL FOUNDATION MATH CAMP IN NEW JERSEY--The summer between Mary's junior & senior year in high school she went to a math camp in New Jersey.  We had talked about our relationship before she went.  I had asked her at one time if we were  going steady, actually I asked more than once.  She said no & informed me that she didn't believe in this ‘Going Steady’ stuff.  I ask something like,’’ So we are just going steadily?’’.  To that she agreed.  I went on to say that I wasn't dating any other girls & had no desire too.  She informed me that she wasn't dating anyone else & had no interest in doing so,  which put my mind to ease. {Deep down was this little fear some high school boy would wake up & realize what a Gem they were missing, & that would be the end of it for me}.  Another thought of hers was that any girl who didn't go on to college after High School was not taking full advantage of her opportunities.  Until she met me Mary had full intentions of going on to College & marriage was the farthest thing from her mind.  But the subject was broached & she said after she got back from New Jersey she would know if such a thing as marriage before college was considerable.

    I was already taken, hook, line & sinker & I wrote her everyday while she was back east.  She wrote me once a week, maybe,  It would really be a let down when I went to the mailbox  & there was no letter from Mary.  She has always said she wrote me more than anybody, I believed her & 35 years of marriage has proven it.  She's a phone caller not a letter writer.  At first I considered stopping writing her so that if a letter didn’t arrive every day she would see how it felt.  But a lesson I had learned in India stopped that.  That is,  ‘’You love with your heart & not with your head’’.  So I continued to write her everyday.  After she came home she said she could consider getting married after high school so we began to talk about the possibility.  Did Mary go on to college after high school or would she consider marriage after high school? I admitted my thoughts about sending her letters & she said she would have been terribly disappointed if a letter hadn’t came everyday.

  

   

Putting on engagement ring in Donut Bay

  THE PROPOSAL—‘’Love is just a way to live & die’’--- It takes nerve ask a girl your not even going steady with to marry you.  But I did it anyway.  Mary remembered the exact date, I couldn't remember when I started this story, it was on my birthday,  August 15, 1973.  We were at the Century II parking lot, we had gone to see a travel film.  

Picture at Donut Bay after giving Mary
the Engagement Ring.

       She never really answered my question.  Her first words were in the form of a question I was totally unprepared for,  “When are we going to have a baby?”  I thought,  “Whoa girl!!!!!,  lets talk about getting married first!”  But I replied,  "Well....I guess we'll talk about it.....and when we feel it's the right time…… we'll have a baby.” I was really struggling for words, I wanted to make sure it was the right thing.   I ask again, “Will you marry me? .....yes?.....no?''  She said,  “I need to think about it”.  Out of desperation I ask, “Could you let me know tomorrow night?” I knew we had plans to see each other the next night.  Mary responded with, “Yes, I’ll give you an answer tomorrow  night.”  We planned to be at the Clark family farm, we went there a lot, to be alone & enjoy being out in the country.  We’d sit at the barn, walk the pastures, sit by the creek.  So I went home in quite a turmoil, one second pessimistic, she didn't say yes, the next moment optimistic, she must have thought about marrying me, she ask about having a baby.  The next night I tentatively ask,  “Have you thought about it enough, to give me an answer about getting married”.   She said she had & the answer is  ‘’YES’’.  I was ESTATIC.  On August 18th we went to Wichita to pick out engagement rings & then went to Donut Bay in Wellington where we put on the rings & took pictures on the bridge at Donut Bay.

        

Just after the Wedding Vows

 THE WEDDING DAY--Mary graduated from High School on a Thursday, Wedding Dress Rehearsal was on Friday, and we were married on a Saturday, May 25, 1974 at Argonia Methodist Church.  Fred Pinkerton was the Pastor.  Mary's sisters, Dolly was Matron of Honor & Helen & best friend Carol were Brides Maids.  Larry's Best Man  was his brother Alan & Groomsman were his cousins, Jonnie & Jerry.  Although a few of our family members had known each other there were a lot who did not so Mary wanted a Family Dinner after the Wedding so that people would have time to sit around, visit & get acquainted.  It was well received & it was an enjoyable time.

     I had convinced Mary to Honeymoon in Ireland, but we found the discounts we had planned on ended the first of May & the regular cost was beyond our means.   We had decided too & had signed a contract with Mary's mom to rent the Mayfield farm.   So we decided on a two-week camping Honeymoon through the U.S. & parts of Canada that included Niagara Falls.  

        
THE HONEYMOON---Our intentions were to make it to Maine.  It was two weeks of Bliss.  I have always said everyone ought to have a two week honeymoon.  We had a small slide-in camper in our 73 Ford pickup & a box behind the cab for cooking & camping supplies plus other items.  After the wedding we stopped & saw Mary's grandma Dolly in South Haven.  Although she’d been at the wedding we stopped in Wellington to see my  grandma Maude.  I had made reservations at a Holliday Inn over by St. Francis Hospital in Wichita but mistakenly went to the one downtown.  I thought they missed putting down our reservation but their honeymoon suite was available so we took it. Mary remembered the next day I made reservations at the other Hotel.   It was fancy room.  It had a bar we didn't use.  But it had a 3-way mirror behind it that I took pictures of Mary poised in front of it in her nightwear.  I had, I thought,  a  new 36 roll of film but when I got to 40 I realized the camera was empty.  Opening the camera confirmed it.  It was probably a good thing the camera was empty, but it was also disappointing.

       At the  Hotel the next morning,  Mary realized the only pair of shoes she had was her wedding shoes.  After the Wedding while  shaking hands with guests my Uncle Alfred Harrison had palmed a 20-dollar bill when he shook hands with me.  I had stuck it in my pocket & continued shaking hands, when we discovered  Mary had only one pair of shoes we went to K-Mart & used Uncle Alfred's $20 to buy a couple pair of shoes that would be practical for a two week camping Honeymoon.

    We left Wichita  the morning of May 26, 1974 on our Honeymoon that took us through Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario-Canada, Niagara Falls, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, back through Missouri where we spent 2-3  days at Temple Resort by the Lake of the Ozarks & finally back home to Kansas.  Our first nights stop was at a campground in Missouri.  It was deserted except for Mary & I.  Surprisingly even though it was May a lot of the campground we stayed at hardly had anyone or no one else there.  To my surprise Mary suggested we shower together, probably to conserve water.  We used the Ladies shower, I guess we figured it would be best for a man to come walking out of a ladies shower than a lady out of the Men’s, I don't know.  I wondered what we would say if a lady walked in while we were in the shower but we didn't have to find out. It  turned out to be such a pleasant experience that it was something we repeated several times during our Honeymoon.

      
DADDY'S HAYBALER--To me it seemed like Mary slept through the first 3 days of driving on our Honeymoon.  The week or two before our Wedding had been exhausting for Mary.  With High School Graduation & a Wedding she had been a very busy gal.  So she spent a lot of time the first 2-3 days stretched out on the seat of the pickup either with her head or feet on my leg sleeping while I was driving.  We were in Iowa one afternoon when Mary roused up from napping as we went by a farm, she looked around the farm and excitedly exclaimed,   “That's a hay bailer just like Daddy used to have.!”  That seemed like the most excitement I had seen her exhibit in 2-3 days of driving.

      
YOU CAN"T GET LOST--We had decided we were going to take a lot of less traveled Highways & County Black Tops.  Maybe because if we decided we wanted to stop, & uh….  Smooch, we wouldn't have a lot of interruptions.  We were in Iowa, had looked at the map & decided to take 2-3 county blacktops to get to a particular city.  On the map it showed all the roads to be  straight lines.  We started out through the Iowa farmland enjoying the scenery until we came to the end of one highway & a black top went both to the left & right, but there were no highway number signs or one with an arrow & a town name, again we looked at the map & it showed the hiway going straight.  We were sitting there wondering whether we should turn left or right when a farmer stopped by and ask if we were having trouble.  I made some comment like, “No, but we may be lost.” & explained we were headed for …   [the name of town] ‘’But our map doesn’t show this jog’’, I said,  I also made a comment about us being on our Honeymoon. To which the farmer replied, “If you’re on your Honeymoon you can't get lost.”  He did tell us how to get to the town  & we were on our way again.  We got a good laugh about “You can’t get lost”.  We figured he remembered his honeymoon quite well.

       
WISCONSIN---We decided the most beautiful farmland we saw was in Wisconsin. Several of the highways were divided, there was a ridge  between the two roadways that were covered with a vine that had beautiful purple flowers blooming.  We stopped at a small Norwegian Museum full of interesting things. In different states we stopped at a lot of small town historical spots.  We stopped in a lot of parks to fix meals on the camp stove. I also seem to remember a lot of the towns having a river or stream on one side of the town or other.  There was a lot of old mills & dams visible from the highway. I think we saw one covered bridge.  We visited State Parks too,  one had a very interesting, tall, Observation Tower with a spiral stairway.  Sometimes Rest Stops had nice scenery & a quite place to relax & enjoy.  One in particular, the divided lanes of the hiway got so far away you felt like you were in the Woods.

      
 DETROIT CITY----was the only place where we didn't stay in a campground.  We had got into Detroit kind of late & were getting really low on gas but all gas stations were closed.  We looked around for someplace appropriate to camp & found nothing so I pulled the pickup & camper into a gas station that had some extra room & we went to bed. I awoke the next morning to find the gas station still closed but a police car parked close by.  I could see him doing something so I figured he had already run a vehicle check on us.  I got out & talked to him.  I explained we had got to town late & couldn't find any gas station open or a place to camp & I was afraid of running out of gas.    The officer was quite polite & informed me the station would be open in less than an hour.  I thanked him & he left.  We soon got gasoline & were on our way again.

    
  CANADA----We camped alongside Lake Erie, in Canada & also saw the most variety of crops being grown in Canada.  It seemed like every 20 miles we saw a different crop being grown:  milo, corn, soybeans, wheat, oats & others.  One that really surprised us was tobacco. I first spotted an old tobacco barn like you would see in Southern U.S. states & then we saw fields of tobacco.  There were also a lot of unusual road signs in Canada.  The ones we found the most humorous were lane merge signs.  Instead of saying, merge right or merge left, they read squeeze right or squeeze left.  We thought this one really funny.  Other signs were worded differently too making looking at road signs a fun thing to do.

Mary cooking at Niagra Falls Campground

      
 NIAGARA FALLS--We saw Niagara Falls at both night & during the day & we saw both the Canadian & American side of the falls.  We also looked at other sites & some parks in the area.  We spent the night in a  campground near Niagara Falls.  We had really planned to be farther than Niagara Falls by this time but we had made a lot of stops along the way.  We talked of going on to Maine but we decided we’d used up half the time, about  half our money & that it would be wise to start back home.