Well, I posted  pictures of our wedding on Facebook yesterday.  Pictures I have never got  out and shown to anyone so I’m not sure what made me actually post them for the world to see.  We didn’t have a big wedding, we didn’t buy new clothes, we didn’t have a professional photographer, we didn’t do any of the other things you normally do when getting married so I didn’t really think about anyone wanting to see our pictures or hear our story.   I didn’t realize my family or even my kids had never seen these pictures and thought that was kinda sad.  After looking at them I decided I would do my next blog about our “Wedding Story.”  This blog will of course be as random as my other blogs.  It’s very evident I’m not a professional writer and I usually try to keep my blogs short… just a warning….this one is a little longer than normal even through I’m trying to keep it short as possible.

Sonny and I started “dating” when we were Freshmen in high school.  We dated all through high school and decided our senior year we would get married after graduating.  When Sonny went to ask my parents if we could get married, the first thing my dad said was, “Carol – go get my boots.”  Mom ran and got his boots out of the bedroom, while we all sat there silently. (and scared.. or at least I was)   After he got his boots on he said, “Come on Sonny, we are going for a drive.”  I’m not sure what all they discussed but whatever it was it took several hours.  If you know dad very well he was always making lists, and he would post them either on the refrigerator, out in his shop or wherever.  He just liked making lists. I am guessing he had a long list of things to discuss for when this day happened.

Although I never got to know everything, I do know a few of the things they discussed:

1. Don’t move her across the country
2. Don’t move her in my back yard.  
3. Have more than 1 kid.
4. Treat her right.
5. Both of you finish college.

I’m sure that wasn’t the exact order they were discussed and I certainly hope it wasn’t the order of importance but this was the order they came to my mind today.  I’m kinda hoping number 4 was the most important!  Eventually dad said he and mom gave their blessings and the wedding planning began.  We have laughed many times about that day.  I think dad scared all of us… including mom.  On a side note… this discussion did not happen with the other siblings and we have often teased about why or why not.

After about a month mom and dad came to us and gave us two options:

1. They would pay for whatever type of wedding we wanted.
2. The would purchase us a trailer house to live in while going to college and we would have a small wedding.

We decided to pick #2 and opt out of a larger wedding.  This suited me perfect because if you know me you know I don’t like to be the center of attention and the practical side of me was excited about having a home paid for. Now, when they said small wedding I think they actually meant a small family wedding. We thought they meant just go get married, so that is what we did.  July 28th was the original date we had picked for our wedding day.  When we decided to just go get married we changed it to July 4th so we could have a small honeymoon.  The reason we picked July 4th was Sonny was working as a “Tick Monitor” through the county extension and it worked better with his work schedule.  His job was to go around and count ticks on cattle.  Funny stuff huh.

Mom found me a hat from somewhere, she also made sure I had a bouquet and a garter.  I wore the white Gunny Sack dress I wore when I was inducted in as FHA District President.  Sonny wore his Dumb & Dumber baby blue suit he wore to prom.  We were set.  We finally found a preacher at the First Baptist Church in Hugo, Oklahoma to come perform the short ceremony on a holiday.  I think Sonny gave him a whopping $10.  During the middle of the ceremony my cousin Randall showed up with a camera is the only reason we have any pictures.   After we got married (at 10:00 a.m.) we decided to go celebrate with lunch, not realizing it was only 10:30 in the morning.  KFC in Hugo opened their doors early to let us eat.  I’m sure they got a laugh out of these two young kids getting married on the fourth of July and coming to KFC to celebrate.  

I will say Sonny kept his word about the 5 stipulations from above.

Here are a few pictures from Independence Day 1979: