52 Years Ago

June 22, 1957, Jim and I were married in Waukegan, Illinois after a four month courtship. Yes, back then, dating was known as courtship. We met at a dance at the YMCA in Chicago, February 14. Jim was 19 years old and a handsome sailor stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago. I was 18 years old, fresh out of Airline Business school and working in the big city with other girlfriends from the same school.
By Easter time that year we knew we were going to be married, so Jim wrote to his mom and dad to ask permission. At that time, women were considered adults at 18 years old, but men were not "legal" adults until they were 21. His Dad did a lot of work in the bush of Alaska and it took an "eternity" to hear from them, but permission, finally came.
The first day Jim had off from electronic school, we took the el into town and headed right to the courtroom. Jim in his navy blue uniform and me in my blue and white dress, complete with crinoline, (crinoline: French word meaning a course, stiff cloth used as a lining in garments. Crinolines in the 50's were made out of net, and stiffened up with either sugar water or starch). We owned the world. We fully expected to be married forever and have lots of kids. We had absolutely no worries. God was taking care of us back then too.
We said our "I do's" in front of a judge named Emil Lindval. Grandma Amundson would have been happy, he was a Scandinavian.
Here we are, fifty-two years later and many of our dreams have come true. We have been married a long time and we have six children and thirteen grandchildren, four great-grandchildren. Everything we hoped for when we were young has been given to us by our generous God. The Rock Church has played a huge role in our lives for the last five plus years. One blessing from TRC and P. Jeff was to be there to lead us in repeating our wedding vows on our fiftieth anniversary celebration.
It's not so important what we do on our special day, we aren't looking for something bigger and better every year, just something important every year. Yesterday on our special day, we spent with friends talking, laughing, praying and being thankful. Never give up. Not for anything. Never give up. Now we have the blessing of looking back at all those years and we can say ...
Wow! God is great!