![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
It's my parent's 45th wedding anniversary today.
It's been a tough year, all around and it's good to know that we all made it through to be together and celebrating. Just the family is going out to celebrate tomorrow. Tonight there was a party. It was party that was only partly in their honor, they had to share the spot light with four other people who happen to have birthdays this same week.
Five celebrations makes for a very big crowd. There was way too much food. There were games for the kids -- the extended family has a ton of kids under 10 even if our immediate family is less populated. The was a DJ and dancing... mostly old Wisconsin/German stuff like waltzes and polkas and the Bunny Hop. The dance floor (and I use that term loosely because it was just the open section of the town hall the party was being held in) usually was crowded with kids ages 2 - 8. It made polkaing very tricky.
There was lots of talking, some drinking, surprisingly little smoking. It was very loud but it was fun. There's a certain wonderful continuity to such gatherings. Outside of the fact that 35 or so years ago (when I was a child) the music would have been provided by a band (probably polka with a accordion and all) rather than a DJ with a high-tech Mac, not that much has changed. The older folks still sat clustered around tables play cards (Rook, in this case), the kids had free rein with everyone keeping an eye out on them and everyone else just talking and mingling and dancing.
As I grow older, I've come to appreciate the connection that such a gathering gives to people. It's the place where you truly learn the meaning of family. Where you talk to the cousin who's just a little to weird to usually associate with. Where you see the next generation and where they see just what family is about. The time when the most reserved of people still get out and do the "Chicken Dance" because it's a party and, damn it, it's fun.
Toward the end, just after the DJ switched from old country music/50's tunes to the dance tunes of the 80's and just before we had to leave, the DJ played Ray Price's "Anniversary Song" and my Mom and Dad got out to do a dance. Now, my dad didn't dance even before he had his stroke. He may be doing terrific but he still has a noticeable weakness in his left side. It was great to see them on the dance floor.
Here's what 45 years of marriage looks like:
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
It's been a tough year, all around and it's good to know that we all made it through to be together and celebrating. Just the family is going out to celebrate tomorrow. Tonight there was a party. It was party that was only partly in their honor, they had to share the spot light with four other people who happen to have birthdays this same week.
Five celebrations makes for a very big crowd. There was way too much food. There were games for the kids -- the extended family has a ton of kids under 10 even if our immediate family is less populated. The was a DJ and dancing... mostly old Wisconsin/German stuff like waltzes and polkas and the Bunny Hop. The dance floor (and I use that term loosely because it was just the open section of the town hall the party was being held in) usually was crowded with kids ages 2 - 8. It made polkaing very tricky.
There was lots of talking, some drinking, surprisingly little smoking. It was very loud but it was fun. There's a certain wonderful continuity to such gatherings. Outside of the fact that 35 or so years ago (when I was a child) the music would have been provided by a band (probably polka with a accordion and all) rather than a DJ with a high-tech Mac, not that much has changed. The older folks still sat clustered around tables play cards (Rook, in this case), the kids had free rein with everyone keeping an eye out on them and everyone else just talking and mingling and dancing.
As I grow older, I've come to appreciate the connection that such a gathering gives to people. It's the place where you truly learn the meaning of family. Where you talk to the cousin who's just a little to weird to usually associate with. Where you see the next generation and where they see just what family is about. The time when the most reserved of people still get out and do the "Chicken Dance" because it's a party and, damn it, it's fun.
Toward the end, just after the DJ switched from old country music/50's tunes to the dance tunes of the 80's and just before we had to leave, the DJ played Ray Price's "Anniversary Song" and my Mom and Dad got out to do a dance. Now, my dad didn't dance even before he had his stroke. He may be doing terrific but he still has a noticeable weakness in his left side. It was great to see them on the dance floor.
Here's what 45 years of marriage looks like:
 |
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
