Wedding Anniversary

My wife and I had our 47th anniversary last Tuesday. No, we didn’t “celebrate” it in that sense of the word; merely observed it and went about our usual daily lives. We quit celebrating birthdays and anniversaries long ago, but here we are still together after all these years.

We’ve started a new trend in the past year or so, one that we rarely practiced before. You see we’ve always done everything together. We have taken numerous day-trips, many on the spur of the moment. I’ve often recounted the day when we lived in Kansas City that we got up and had our breakfast and then decided that we didn’t have anything to do that day. So we got in the car and drove over to St Louis, about 280 miles. We went up in the Gateway Arch—something you should really do if you’re ever in that region—had dinner at a nice restaurant and we were back home in time for the 10 o’clock news.

We’ve also taken longer trips than that with no preplanning, just hopped in the car and drove. Two years ago that landed us in Utah as a far point from Augusta, Georgia. We were on the road for ten days that time, and we had a great time.

Well, lately we’ve started doing some things on our own. We now take trips alone, but not all of them, and I’ve gotten into a “hobby” of barbershop harmony. That means weekly chorus rehearsals, almost weekly quartet rehearsals and several performances every year. Judy doesn’t share my interest in music, so she has never participated or even gone to any of my performances.

Yes, we’re into the new era of “Hope ‘n’ Change’ that has taken the country by storm lately. I don’t know that it is exactly like the other ‘hope ‘n’ change,’ because it’s more “I hope things will change sometime” for us, a view I am certain she holds as well. Neither of us holds much hope that they will change, but that’s okay, too. It’s just another phase of our long life together.

I believe we’ve grown more tolerant of each other, too. That’s another benefit of longevity in marriage. The longer you stay together, the lower you set the bar for things you thought would change but never did. Disputes that newlyweds—those married less than ten years—consider fodder for divorce court become mere annoyances for couples that have endured each other for forty years or more.

Okay, I won’t bore you anymore with my musings and reminiscences. And you don’t even have to send your congratulations or a gift or anything like that. Last Tuesday was pretty much like any other day in the year. Maybe when we reach fifty years we’ll actually celebrate by going out to dinner or something. If not, oh well, she’s a good cook.