Asking for a Date Via Letter

Most people don’t get to attend their parents’ wedding.

I certainly didn’t. My parents, Leo and Barbara Wick, got married Aug. 26, 1962 – some 15 years before I was born as the fifth of their seven kids. But after the events of last Sunday, I feel like I got a little taste of what their wedding was like. My parents threw an elaborate 60th anniversary celebration Sunday, with all of us kids helping out. And the event had all the feel of a wedding. There was a Mass in their honor, a catered dinner, a big cake, a head table, music, even a keg of beer. Even some of the guests who were at the original wedding 60 years ago were in attendance. All my parents’ living siblings were at Sunday’s celebration, as well as some of their original bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Sixty years of marriage is certainly something to celebrate.

One of my sisters read a little story she had researched about my parents’ courtship and marriage.

In it were interesting details like how my parents had to leave their own wedding reception to drive into town to take their wedding photos at a studio. So few people had personal cameras back then. There are only a few surviving photos from the wedding and reception. They opened their wedding presents during the reception as they sat on the stage at the old Hostyn dancehall. Both the church and the dancehall their wedding was held at are now demolished.

But the thing I found most interesting in the story my sister told to the anniversary party crowd was how my parents’first date came about. They had met at a church dance back in 1961 but then went home their separate ways.

A few days later a letter arrived at the home of my mother’s parents. It was from my dad, asking her out on a date. This was 1961 – and neither home had a phone. My Dad imagines he might not have even known her address – only her name and that she lived in the Cozy Corner area.

Somehow the letter got

there. My mom responded with a letter of her own, accepting the date at the offered time – and the rest is history. It’s amazing to think of how my mom’s life changed with the arrival of that one letter. It’s funny to think of the anticipation my dad must have had checking the mailbox in High Hill every day after he sent off the letter asking for the date.

It’s remarkable to think of how much times have changed, what a different world it was that my parents grew up in. How very rarely we truly have to wait for things anymore.

The perseverance and sacrifice and commitment it takes to make it through 60 years of marriage is truly amazing. One of the handful of photos that my parents do have from their wedding reception 60 years ago is of my mom feeding my dad a piece of the wedding cake.

My folks fed each other wedding cake again Sunday.

How true it is that good things come to those who wait.

How sweet the cake must taste on a 60th anniversary.