My lover, partner, best friend

8/28/82

 

We didn't plan to have a memorable date for our wedding date...we were just trying to avoid Hawkeye (my parents) and Cyclone (Paul and me) football games! But it worked out pretty well in the end.

We met at 230 Campus Avenue in Ames

 

 

See - cute friends!

Paul and I met the first time in the fall of 1978. I don't recall being all that impressed - thinking more that his friend Scheid was cute. Besides, Paul was just back visiting that weekend - he was working that fall in SW Iowa at Forney Lake, near Riverton. My next memory of Paul is when he came to our door to sign me and me roomies up for a co-ed softball team with him and his buddies. Hmm more cute friends? And I was right - his friends Tom and Mike were handsome guys too. Not that he was dogmeat...but I'd seen him walk by our apartment holding hands with a girl with long hair.

 

 

That spring before my senior year we went on a date. I enjoyed his company but still thought it was a passing thing. That summer I became a softball groupie - his team Minsky's was pretty good, and so was he. I liked watching him play. We dated that year - he took me with him for a class project. He had to clip the nails of a vole, a little mouselike creature. He grew on me. By spring I met his sister Jean and fam, and then his parents. Then I graduated off I went to my new job in Sioux Falls, SD. Paul had started school a quarter late - he thought he wanted to be a carpenter for a bit. So he needed to finish up. He was working nights as a pre-sorter for UPS, so he fell asleep on some of our dates - sexy!

 

So there I was in Sioux Falls, all by myself. I had a few thoughts that maybe I'd meet Mr. Right there. Wrong! Paul came to visit - and without the distraction of college and roommates, we really got to know each other. We became best friends. That's when I was hooked! He wrote me the most romantic letters from SE Iowa, where he landed after graduating - trapping turkeys to transplant elsewhere. Then karma took over - and I was transferred to Omaha and he got a job in Oakland, Iowa not far away. We saw each other every weekend. In January of 1982 we got engaged, putting the wedding together in 8 short months, thanks to the Pat Bullock machine. My mom was good at that stuff.

 

 

Bridesmaids - my roomies, Vic, Jane, Sal and sis Betso. Groomsen - Mike, Tom, Fitz, Schneid with Moose and Brad as ushers. It was a great wedding, and the priest got us out of there in 45 minutes with a full mass. Paul's sis Jean played the organ and Pat McCauley played the organ. Music was gorgeous - the Sound of Music Wedding March was what I walked in to. (No...nobody sang "How do you Solve A Problem Like Leslie"). If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. No singers, no flower girls. (Mom thought they were too dramatic).

 

 

Our friends decorated a van with a bunch of stuffed wild animals for us to ride in after the wedding - complete with duck calls. We went to the hospital to see my Grandpa Bubba. Others went to the White Rose and got drunk. There was a reception at the Country Club followed by another one at my parent's home - with roast beef my folks friends cooked for sannies. We had a keg and everyone had a great time. I got chilly and put on jeans and my mom's golf sweatshirt. Paul still had on his white tux - when we checked into the Wise Owl Hotel near I-80 the staff probably thought the groom ran away with someone other than the bride!

 

 

The next day we opened gifts at Mom and Dad's. When I walked in the door Dad said, "You look...different." Hmmm I was thinking I shoulda looked different a while ago...haha We still enjoy many of the gifts we received all those years ago.

 

 

We didn't go on our honeymoon for a few days as I had to close out month end books at my job at the grocery wholesaler in Omaha on the 31st. Then we flew to Seattle and took a Grayline Tour to Mount Ranier. Then we took a big ferry to Victoria Island, and then across to Vancouver. There Paul found out he had been hired by the federal government for a job in his same office in East Pott County. The beginning of a 30 year career.  

 

 

And the beginning of a beautiful marriage. Not always fun, but mostly. Thank God he's a patient man (a saint really). And good thing I like sports, and am able to entertain myself during hunting season. We aren't jealous types - trusting in each other. I pretty much tell him everything - so if you don't want him to know something, don't tell me. We've been through some tough stuff - our child's death, our parents' passing. I can't think of anyone I'd rather walk through this world with.

 

Happy 30th Anniversary Pablo - may there be at least 30 more!