You probably won’t see it announced on Larry King Live tomorrow night, but this coming Tuesday, June 10th, Charlotte and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. I won’t bore you with what we paid for our first loaf of bread, but believe me…..the changes have been amazing.
For sure the physical changes have taken place. It is normal and expected that two baby faced 22 year olds should look a little different at 52 than they looked on their wedding day. In fact, I am glad we both looked different. I think a lot of the guests might have whispered behind their hand that day if Charlotte had been coming down the aisle to marry a fellow with more salt in his hair than pepper. Pregame stats in the program that day listed me at 6′ tall and 119 pounds. You would be kind if you just said that the groom looked like a bean pole. Some college buddies have confessed in recent years that I looked more sicklier than a bean pole. Legend has it that the big ole’ bow tie I was wearing weighed almost as much as I did.
On the other hand, Mrs. Brown has always been classy and hot. She was hot in college and hotter after she had three kids. That point was proven several years ago when we hosted a party for Lindsay and a house full of her college friends. There were a lot of topics and cliches that evening, but the phrase that circulated the most that night was from the young college guys that kept saying that Lindsay’s mom, “has got it going on!”
To be honest, I have wondered a time or two over the years how it ever happened in the first place. Sometimes it is beyond my comprehension that an ornery snow ball throwin’ youngster could talk a college homecoming queen into meeting him at an altar. Not just any altar, but an altar where we made some pretty big promises in front of a whole bunch of listeners. I asked her awhile back if we had signed any “pre-nups” before we met at the end of that long aisle that she had walked down. She didn’t recall us ever signing anything like that. Either both of us realized that it wouldn’t be necessary to pay an attorney to tell us that each got one end table and one plant or we really did mean what we were saying.
Oh, I don’t mean to paint a picture that we are clones of Ward and June Cleaver. You wouldn’t respect me or believe us if I attempted to tell you that two people with two different histories, personalities, temperaments, interests and gifts could live 30 years together without ever having a good ole’ fashion fight. I wouldn’t think of insulting your intelligence so….I confess that…. yes, my friend, I have spent a night or two on the couch of disagreement over the years.
And to be fair to all, if you ever get a chance to, please feel free to ask Char if she has ever turned off the grandfather clock and curled up on the love seat by herself. She will shoot straight with ya’. We are not terribly proud of that nor are we totally bothered by it either. I would like to think that kinda’ stuff happens in the best of marriages. I will let you in on a little secret though. No matter how mad Mrs. Brown is at me in the winter time….she never leaves her electric blanket for the couch. If anybody is “couching it” in the winter it is gonna’ have to be me.
While we are on the subject of sleeping habits….Charlotte read to me recently the reason why single women are thinner than married women. The formula says that “single women look in the fridge…slam the door and go to bed. Married women look in bed….slam the door and go to the fridge.” (She thought it was so funny she read it to me twice)
Like all married couples, the vows we made to each other have been tested a time or two over the thirty years. Commitments of any type will always meet with adversity and challenge. Truth of the matter is we both know a little bit more about sickness and health and being richer or poorer than we did at about 1:50 that summer afternoon. Like all couples, we have shared together some tremendous triumphs and some low points that “low” doesn’t describe.
Just between you and me…..I am tryin’ to muster up enough courage to ask her if she has any interest in signing on for another thirty years. I kinda’ have a hunch that she will sign, but about the time I start to bring it up I say something I shouldn’t have said or do something I shouldn’t have done and I embarrasingly slip my pen back into my pocket.
But, I am tired of waiting and wondering. I am tired of tossing and turning. I am just gonna’ throw the idea out there and see what she says. If she says “Yes”….then we sign…..and off we go toward another thirty years. If she says “No, I am leaving you” then I will know that is my cue to pack my bags as well….because I am gonna’ go with her.
Happy Anniversary Charlotte……I love you!
