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6 August 2008

I’ve been tripping down memory lane for the last few weeks. It started when I dug out the old photo albums and put on the old music. We knew we were going to spend the weekend with some “kids” that we’ve known since grade school so I had to find some good pictures to share with these old friends. We were camping together which was an activity that we shared often in the early years so the environment and the companions triggered lots of memories for all of us. We shared lots of laughter around the campfire under those brilliant high altitude stars and agreed that we really should do that more often.

Since we’ve been home I’ve been digging out more pictures and re-living so many memories. I’ve shed a few tears and even had a giggle or two sitting all alone with a lap full of pictures. Once or twice I’ve been laughing so hard that my daughter had to come have a look. She’s seen these pictures before but she’s seeing them with adult eyes now and had to warn me that she didn’t want to see any “wild pictures” from last weekend and she was going to put her foot down if Papa started growing his hair long again. I guess I’ll just have to hide some of these pictures from her!

One set of old pictures reminded me of my first camping trip with Jim. We were in the same high school together but met backstage at a Community Theatre. I remember it vividly, he was wearing a sheepskin coat and knee high moccasins. I was dressed (?) in rehearsal clothes, leotard and tights and feeling very self-conscious. I was 16, he was 17 and we were both very shy. Within 6 months we were talking about marriage but were smart enough to realize we should finish school first. We were inseparable for 2 ½ years except for a short time when I lived with my friend and his family in the mountains for awhile. When I moved back home the wedding plans got serious.

I have a sister who is just 13 months younger and she and her boyfriend had just announced their engagement. We come from a HUGE and very close-knit extended family so our aunts were very excited about planning my sister’s wedding. Back in those days there were hundreds of relatives who all lived close enough to come to a wedding and the family loved these big celebrations. Before we knew it our aunts were suggesting a “Double Wedding”. Now wouldn’t that just be the most exciting family celebration of the year? Since my sister and I were such good friends the family thought we would love the idea as much as they did. They were wrong.

I knew my sister wanted her own wedding. I also knew that Jim would die before he could stand up in front of hundreds of wedding guests. With a family the size of mine there was no way we could have a quiet, intimate wedding with just a handful of carefully selected guests. So we smiled politely when the “Magnificent Double Wedding” was mentioned and hatched a plot to run away.

At that time Colorado state law mandated that the groom be 21 years of age to marry without a parental signature. Jim was still a couple years shy of that birthday so we started investigating the law in other states. We were already road buddies and the idea of a nice long drive punctuated with camping sounded like a great way to start our life together. Turns out Arizona let grooms make that life changing decision at 18 so we set our sights on Flagstaff and a date a few weeks after my sister’s wedding. When Jim got laid off two weeks before the wedding we looked at each other and said, “Well, let’s just GO!” so we did.

A friend insisted we take his “hippie van” for the trip and the soundtrack was lots of Eagles, America and Santana while we traveled. We were married in the first church we came across in Flagstaff. The church secretary called the guy who was working on his car across the street and they stood up for us. She and I cried, it was all very sweet, and the perfect beginning for this life. We had to make some amends with family when we got home but we were quickly forgiven and they were all relieved that we didn’t have our first child until almost five years later. We’re still making history together after all these years and when work gets slow or he can sneak away we still say, “Let’s just go!” and we do. We’re still running away every chance we get and making more memories every day. Speaking of memories, I’d better get back to my pictures…I think I still have a few more to hide!