43 years ago yesterday was the coldest weekend of the year….It was a Friday nite.  Rich and I picked a Friday, cause we were only having a small wedding and we were going back to work on Monday.  We were very POOR…..lol…We were married at 7 pm on Jan 14, 1972 at St. Johns Lutheran Church in Toluca Illinois.  We had a small reception at the hall.  It was nothing like the weddings of today.  No DJ, or band.  Just Cake and mints and nuts.  lol.  Entertainment was all the guest watching us open the presents.   I remember we mostly received things for the apt. we needed.  Sheets, towels, kitchen small appliances.  A popcorn popper that would now be classified as Antique, and the one thing I still have, is an Electric Knife by Hamilton Beech.   I worked at Toluca Garment and all the wonderful lady’s got together and bought several gifts.  The knife was one of the items they bought.  That knife has been used at every major holiday.  To this day it works perfectly.  I made a point to make sure we kept it.  You just never know when you might need a good electric carving knife…..Memories….lol….

My dress was a very simple homemade dress.  It was made by a friend.  It was white polyester knit….lol….pearl beads lined the neck and sleeves and the veil was very simple.  White netting with the Pearl trim on the head piece.  All materials cost $16.  Rich had a dark Blue polyester suit coat made.  Since I worked at Toluca Garment, I was able to get it made at no cost…That is I think….Maybe I had to pay a small price.  We had no money for a honeymoon, so we took off for the weekend to Peoria.  We stayed in a hotel that was on the east side of St Francis Hospital, now known as OSF.  Fortunately we had underground parking.  We were driving my fairly new 1969 Maroon color Camero.   Oh how is wish we had that car today.  Ironically that hotel is gone today and is a parking lot….How Ironic, little did I ever dream that 40 years later my daughters would be parking in the lot where the hotel was, that we spent our honeymoon nite,  attending St. Francis School of Nursing next door…..When Tammy was attending school, we stood looking out the window making that observation…lol.

After our Honeymoon evening in the motel, lol,  we drove to Richs grandparents house in Keithsburg Illinois, on the Mississippi.  Now I had never meet his grandparents.  How would you like to spend the 2nd nite of your honeymoon at your new husbands grandparents…..lol…Ohhh how poor we were….Now this is a really small town and I felt like I had just drove into hillbilly country…..One of his grandparents friends dropped by drinking their “homemade brew”…..The discussion in the room was about car engines.  Comparing our 350 cubic engine to others….The old lady, drinking her brew, who might add was not talking to straight anymore said….”Our engine is bigger than yours…..We have a GALAZY 500″…….hahaha…..Oh my…..Ill never forget that….I think I was just speechless.  Definitely in a different world than I was use to.   On sunday morning it was so cold, our car wouldn’t start either.  So after jumping the car and a Fried chicken dinner, that Rich said is what his grandma always cooked, we took off back to our new home.

Our first home was in Oglesby on Walnut St.  It was an upstairs apartment above a Flower shop and Photographer…..Those of you who know Oglesby will know it as the business next to the Police station….At that time the Police Station was the Library…I think it is another Photography Studio now….We had a furnished apartment on the east side of the building.  I thought I was really living high now.  We had furnace heat.  lol.  At my house we heated with several oil burners in the rooms.  The one problem with the apartment was it was converted from 3 sleeping rooms to one apartment.  The OLD landlords lived across the hall.  So we had 3 doors that entered into the apartment from the central hallway.   We even had a door in the bathroom to the hall way…..hahaha…Many times we would hear them come out of their apartment, the door would shut…..footsteps……silence……….footsteps nearer…….silence………finally their door would open and shut again.  What else would they be doing.  Listening…..I just bet their ears were stuck against our doors……Now if your in the bathtub, that would really be spooky…   Several times we would come home and find the windows shut that we would have left open.  They would come in and walk through while we were gone.

So finally by summer we rented a house.  We moved to 225 S. Glen.  We had no furniture, so what do poor people do?  We went to an auction, bought a 2 piece bedroom set, some other misc. furniture, curtains for most of the house….I might add, they were those horrible fiberglass type curtains that I thought were AWESOME at the time….Everything to live in our NEW HOME for only $125.  lol.   We were living now.  And guess what….WE HAD ANOTHER FURNACE.  CENTRAL HEATING.  I felt like I was rich.  Now would you believe that this past summer I just now sold the dresser we bought at that auction.  It was still in pretty good shape.  I sold it on a fb garage sale site for $25 …Not bad for 43 years of use.

So here we are 43 years later….Richs sister came to live with us in Jan of 1974.  Her dad had a heart attack and was moving south, Connie moved in a attended LP High School she graduated in 1978.  We moved to McNabb in 1978 also and Tammy was born in April 1978, Tina March 1980, and Scott April 1982.   So today they have given us 5 grandchildren.   Tammy has Cameron 16, Cassidy 10 and Carly 3 in a week.  Tina and Ed have Miley 6 and Austin 4.  Scott and girlfriend Brandy don’t have any but Brandy has a daughter Staci.  Connie and Brian have one daughter, Ashley.

An so our family has grown….Up until now, we all lived but 20 minutes away from each other….When the kids were little, I always worried they would move away when they grew up….Well guess who moved…..US…lol…You just never know your future do you!!!