Linda and Paul’s Wedding Story
Plans were made
well in advance. We were to be married on Thursday November 25th, 1971 at 10:30 a.m. on Vesper Hill at Camp
Mench Mills, by Reverend “Bob” West. We
chose the camp because Paul had spent summers there and thought it was a
beautiful spot. Vesper Hill is where the camp kids would go to meditate. To get to Vesper Hill you had to walk through
a tunnel of pine trees. At the top of the hill was an open area of grass
surrounded by trees. From there you
could see down into the valleys for miles, a beautiful sight. The minister was suggested to us by Paul’s
niece Robin. She had met him at the camp
that summer and liked him because he was young and asked the kids to call him
Bob. Since we had chosen the camp as a
chapel and decided not to use the standard vows, we thought Rev. West would be
perfect. We met with him the week before our wedding at the camp to show him
our vows. He brought along several poems to read at the ceremony that he thought
we would like. Everything was set up for
our perfect wedding day; however, on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving
and the day before our wedding, our luck changed and it began to snow and rain.
We both had to
work on Wednesday. I had ordered our cake at an Italian bakery a block from
where I worked. I asked the baker to deliver the cake to me at work. He did.
What a mistake. As he walked the cake to the beauty shop where I was working it
began to snow flurry; unfortunately, he hadn’t bothered to cover the cake. The
icing got a little wet from the snow.
When it dried, it was just ugly.
I hadn’t wanted the usual wedding cake, so I had ordered a sheet cake. I
wanted it decorated in autumn colors but he decorated it for Halloween, or so
it seemed. That same day, Paul got a
call from the car dealer saying that the Vega we ordered in August had finally
arrived. Paul was so excited about it and he decided to pick it up right after
work to surprise me with its arrival. It must have been hard for him not to
tell me when he called me at work earlier that afternoon. After he picked up
some of the food for the wedding lunch reception, which was to be held at our
home in Hyde Park, he picked up me and the cake. When we got home, I found that
a tea kettle that I had ordered about the same time as the car had also
arrived. While it wasn’t as important as
the car, we should have known then that tomorrow, our wedding day, would be
filled with lots of surprises.
November 25th, our wedding
day had finally arrived, but without any sign of the beautiful, sunny day we
had hoped for. The week before when we
met with the minister at the camp the weather was like a beautiful
Indian-Summer day. Our special day was rainy and cold, so much so we needed our
winter coats. Our friends, Chuck and Linda Fister, had arrived at our house at
8:30am to pick us up. They were going to
be our witnesses and thought they should drive us to the wedding in their
car. We took a few pictures, checked to
see if we had everything, and then left for Mench Mills. The rain had melted
the snow in the city, but as we got closer to the camp it was snowing and there
was quite a bit of accumulation. Our journey was half way over when the real
trouble began. The country roads were windy, hilly, and, of course, unplowed.
At the first hill, Chuck decided to get a “runny” in an attempt to make it up.
Well, the car slid off to the side of the road and got stuck. We all got out to push it. Even Linda Fister, who was 3 months pregnant
at the time, insisted on helping. When the car was finally freed, we tried
another road, but that led right back to the same hill, only this time there
were several cars trying to get up. One
of which belonged to my brother, Russell. In his car was my other brother,
David, Russell’s daughter Janie, my mother, and a friend of the family. We watched several cars go over the
hill. They had made it, so Chuck wanted
to try it again. Russell decided to take
another road, which would take him longer but he was sure it would be plowed.
We made it over that hill successfully, only to find another hill. We got to just about the top when we slipped
into a snow bank. Again we tried pushing, but it was too far into the bank, so
Paul ran to a nearby farm house we had passed to see if he could get some
help. While he was gone, several cars
stopped at the top of the hill because they could not chance getting past our
car. One was a jeep, and several of the
men waiting hooked up chains to use the jeep to pull us free. While all this was going on, the Fisters had
told one of the men helping, Donald, where we were going and why. Donald said he knew of better roads to get to
the camp, and had a station wagon that would get us there. So, we had Donald take us. First, Chuck drove
his car to the farm and asked to park it and he asked if we could use their
restroom. Fortunately the bathroom was
inside, much to my surprise. Walking through the house, we encountered women
getting the holiday meal ready. The house was filled with a wonderful aroma. When
I went back out to join the others, Donald said he needed gas. Fortunately, the farm had its own gas
pump. We were saved again. Donald’s station
wagon was weighed down by several tires in the back. There was also a black
girl sitting in the very back with those tires.
You could hardly see her. She was
sort of hiding behind the tires. In the
front seat was an old woman, who Donald introduced and said she was going to
his house for the holidays. He never mentioned the black girl, which we did
think a little strange. Donald finally did get us to Mench Mills; however, it
had all been in vain, because no one else was there and we didn’t know if they
had already come and gone or just never made it. You see, by this time, we were an hour and a
half late to our own wedding! What were we to do next?
We decided to
head back to the farm for our car. On the way to the farm we saw my brother
Russell driving by and we stopped to explain what happened. We told him to
follow us back to the farm. We thanked Donald for being so kind and got into
our car to head for the New Jerusalem Hotel, hoping that it would be open so we
could make some phone calls and decide what to do next. Getting there wasn’t so simple. To this day we don’t know how it happened,
but our car went off the road again into a ditch just short of hitting a pole.
No one was hurt, but we needed a wrecker to pull us out. The Fisters stayed behind to wait for the
wrecker while the rest of us drove to the hotel in Russell’s car. The New
Jerusalem Hotel was open. While powdering
my nose, Paul jokingly asked if there was minister in the house. Believe it or not, there was. His name was
Amos Seldomridge and he was the minister from Old Gossenhopper U.C.C. in
Woxoll. Unreal as it seems, he agreed to marry us, after he finished his Thanksgiving
meal. The wait was fine with us, because the Fisters, our marriage license, and
our wedding rings were all back in the ditch. Russell and Paul drove back to
tell the Fisters the good news and to bring them, the license, and the rings
back for the wedding. While they were gone, I had to make a few phone calls. The first one was to Paul’s parents. I got no answer, which upset me because I had
visions of them stranded on one of those roads we slid off of. The next was to
the Fisters’ home because they were expecting Linda’s family from Chicago.
Chuck’s mother answered and said that Linda’s parents still had not
arrived. I filled her in and said not to
worry.
Finally,
everyone was ready. The minister even
had a chance to look over the vows and poems we planned to use because my
mother had a copy of them with her. We
would not have needed the vows because Paul and I memorized them, but we didn’t
know the poems as they were to be read by the minister. The manager of the New
Jerusalem Hotel kindly gave us a private dining room to use for our ceremony. At
2:00 pm we were married.
After
the ceremony we shook hands and gave our thanks to the minister and the hotel
staff. We exchanged hugs and kisses with the family and friends who made it
there. We took pictures, which unsurprisingly were not very good photos. We
thanked the minister again and paid for his family’s Thanksgiving meal. Chuck
and Linda drove us to our home to prepare for our guests who were scheduled to
arrive at 3:00pm.
We had
everything we needed for our celebration except for ice to chill the magnum of champagne,
so Paul went for some. I began to worry
when after a while Paul hadn’t returned with the ice. I remembered that just
before we got married, Russell asked Paul if he still wanted to go through with
it after all that had happened that day. Paul said he did. So I ruled out that he ran away. Eventually, he did return. The reason for his delay – a flat tire, on a
brand new car. What else?!
When the guests
arrived we began telling the story over and over, which by then seemed quite
funny and promoted a good bit of teasing.
Paul’s parents, his sister, her three children, our friends, Dave and
Elaine Lykens, and Bob and Kathy Deim had all tried to get to the wedding site
at the camp, but because of the road conditions they had to give up, which was
just as well, since they would have missed it.
That evening Paul called the minister, Rev. West, and found out that he
had never left his home that day because his driveway was full of snow and he
thought that if we really wanted to get married we would find a way. I guess he
was right! The rest of the day was much better, except for Paul’s nose bleed
and a few other minor things that could have happened to anyone at anytime . .
.
