DIARY OF A WEDDING-- July 2 1971.
Jim and Susan.
The day is bright and beautiful, the air shining clear and fresh. It is a perfect summer day, and a lovely weekend to look forward to!
We have been up since 6 a.m. Got Michael off to work, packed the car, and got Mom her breakfast. Wilf inspected Mrs. Lock's house. (Our next door neighbor is away and he has the key.)
We picked up Mary Ann and Sheila. Jim and Mary are gone ahead with Catherine and Nora. Mary Jane and John, Michael and Patrick and Paul are coming after work at 3:30 p.m. Suz cant come because she is so close to having her baby and Joel is staying with her. The Olsens (Sid and Helen), the Stableforth's and Ed and Kay and Danny, Terry and Mickey drive down tomorrow.
Tonight is the rehearsal dinner. Espanola, here we come!
Now that we are in the car, and actually on our way, I feel at least 25 years younger! It has taken three weeks of hard work to get here. Susan and Jimmy are going to attend Algoma College this summer and will be staying at the house with us, on the Third Floor So we redecorated. (I love the names of the side roads as we pass. This one especially--Pumpkin Point. Neat!
I can't really remember exactly when we decorated before. Five years perhaps. The Third Floor has been Jimmy's and Michael's abode for a long time, and Michael's pad for the two years since Jimmy went to Teachers College and then to Webbwood. It was a dull (that is a kind adjective) gold. There were two holes in the wall. One where Jimmy put his fist through in a fit and another where Michael lost his temper. Wallboard walls are quite strong, but not strong enough! One hole was covered with a large calendar; the other with an old Detroit Red Wings banner. Michael posters screamed "Peace!" Jimmy Hendricks was there in psychedelics. The Beatles, individually and collectively, were plastered all over the walls, just passed (Big Perch Bay Road) so it has taken three weeks to redecorate.
John and Joel and Michael laid the wall to wall rug, and what a job it was! (We are in Lake Huron Country now. Superior is behind us. )
I bought the rug second hand when the Library was re-rugged. The rubber backing was faulty, but the face of the rug was okay. The trouble was that all the backing was not faulty, just part of it, so to make it even we had to scrape, peel, and claw the good backing off. We did that on the front lawn. I wonder what the neighbors would do without the Punch's for diversion! We peeled it off with egg lifters! John, Joel, Mary Jane, Michael, Suzanne and I spent the first evening on our knees. Joel even hired a couple of little boys who just happened along. So you can imagine why I feel twenty-five years younger now that we are in the car. The past three weeks have added at least twenty-five.
We finished most of the work about midnight last night. (Chapleau Road) It looks nice. We were trying so hard to finish yesterday. Wilf was laboring to put a new counter top in the little kitchen alcove, and he was called twice to the Bridge. Then some friends who couldn't come to the wedding dropped in with Jimmy's gift, so our schedule was shot completely.
I hated to leave Mom this morning. When I was saying good-bye I said, "1 wish you could come, Mom”. “1 wish I could, too," she replied. "But I'd have to be forty years younger. But we’ll soon be all together again, so you all have a real good time!" Ninety-one!
Yesterday was the sad day the three Russian astronauts were found dead when their spacecraft landed after 23 days in space. I said to Mother"1 wonder if man knows enough yet to send people out into the unknown?" "Well, Katherine, she said "How will we ever find out if we never try." So-- I felt old in my way of thinking, and Mother was young
It is getting too shaky for me to write--- not much of an ad for our vaunted Ontario highways. The rehearsal dinner will be at the Espanola Hotel (Timberwolf Park, Sunset Beach.)
JULY 4, 1971.
The wedding is over. The past two days have been an investment in family life. Wonderful memories-- a few crises--" but overview wonderful. Mary's remark when we were making the plans long ago was, "I wonder if Espanola is ready for us!" I don't think it will ever be quite the same.
The Espanola Hotel is old, with wide verandahs, and white pillars. A bit in need of paint, with bathroom doors that did not quite close, but it was clean, with wide oak stair-ways turn-of-the--century charm, and the air-conditioning worked.
We had the suite with deep leather chesterfield and chairs. Velveteen pillows, soft and comfortable, winy-red old chairs-- beautiful, a tea wagon, solid oak, carved twisty legs that served as a bar that served very well and constantly.
The rehearsal dinner was beautifully arranged in the high-ceilinged, paneled, octagonal dining room. The small tables were set for four or six people. A lovely buffet! Cold meats and four hot dishes, roast beef, thick-sliced and rare. Hot fried chicken, salads and salads and salads. Scalloped potatoes, pickled pear halves deliciously cinnamon and a champagne punch with fresh strawberries floating in it. Everyone was dressed beautifully and on their best behavior. The room was gracious and the people were relaxed. The crises occurred before. When we arrived at the hotel and unpacked it was discovered that one bag containing Nora's clothes and Mary's had been left at home. So we phoned MaryJane and asked her to go over to Ford Street and pick it up. The key was in the mailbox.
Mary Jane and John were driving down late in the afternoon. John worked until four. Paul worked until 3.30. Michael until three and Patrick was practicing his golf as long as possible. So, that emergency was taken care of Paul, Pat and Michael being the ushers, were needed for the rehearsal which was scheduled for 7 p.m. Fine. Easy does it! We strolled through the Espanola shopping district in the afternoon. We drove to Caruso's at Anderson Lake with Mary Ann, Catherine, Sheila, and Nora McIntyre, and Janie and Sheila Sunstrum. We had lunch in the Lodge, and came back in time to shower and change, The phone rang at 6 p.m. it was Suzanne. "Don't panic, Mother." (An opening speech always guaranteed to create panic.) Everything is Okay, BUT John has had car trouble "Where are they?"
"They are just leaving now. His rad blew up at Bruce Mines1 and they had to limp back here. Sidney gave them his car. Sidney and Helen are taking our car to go down tomorrow, and we still have the Volks. Don't WORRY, Mother. Just hold off the rehearsal." GREAT!
The rehearsal was scheduled for 7 p.m. because Father Orondorf had a meeting with the Bishop at 8 p.m. in Sudbury. He was going to be late even at the 7 p.m. time, SO the rehearsal had to go on as scheduled without the ushers We postponed the rehearsal dinner, not once, but twice, to 9 p.m. Just a little rearrangement in the schedule! We opened a bar in our room and gathered there to put in time. The travelers did not arrive until after we had given up waiting for them and were settled in the dining room. Mary and Nora zipped into their dresses. Paul zipped into his pants so quickly that he demolished the zipper. Fortunately 1 had brought a choice of pants for Michael and Paul managed with them. Mary had made long peasant dresses for her girls and she wore a matching outfit. They looked lovely. I had a pant suit. White pants flowered top. Another slight crisis! Michael had bought new shoes ($35.00) for the occasion, and when put them on (he had only tried one on in the store) the right shoe fit; the left one was a size smaller. Another phone call, this time Vince Punch was fingered to go to Davis clothing before they left on Saturday for Espanola, to get Michael a matching pair. That taken care of we relaxed.
Everyone came back to our room after the dinner. It was a lovely evening.Saturday morning of THE DAY, the first event was a trip to the hairdressers. As I waited for Wilf to pick me up I walked up and down the small town streets, and absorbed the feeling. I could HEAR the breeze rustling the leaves In the trees There were clumps of tiger lilies in the gardens; Ivy crawling over the face of a garage. And the sounds! Children playing . . . birds. And to top it all, down the road came two boys, fishing pole in hand, and one of them had a straw hat tilted forward over his forehead. Not the traditional wide-brimmed, tattered straw hat of MY smalltown youth-- a fedora type-----but straw nevertheless,
The afternoon passed with people in and out of the room. People arriving from the Sault, old friends, family. The girls, themselves, like flowers, scrubbed, shining. sweet and feminine. Then the boys-no, not boys--young men--- appeared in their tuxedos, looking very dashing.
Suddenly-- so suddenly-- in spite of all the preparations and the waiting, it was time to go to the church. Seeing Jimmy leave the hotel I had the usual pang. Something ended; something-beginning. A life changing direction!
The new ceremony required that Wilf and I be in the wedding group. The procession, the cross bearer, the acolytes, Father Orondorf, bridesmaids and ushers, arm in arm, Wilf and I with Jimmy between us.
Susan was with her parents. We stood at the front and waited for her. Then Jimmy left us, and Susan left her parents, and they went together to the altar.
It was a beautiful ceremony. Jimmy and Susan chose their own special prayers and repeated them together. Don Sunstrum gave the first reading; Wilf the second. My favorite, too, Paul to the Corinthians “Love is kind, if I have not love, though I deliver my body, I am nothing”
The day was perfect. The wedding was summertime, young and joyous event!
Susan was a picture-book bride-- a dainty, feminine, lovely bride in a wide brimmed hat and veil. The attendants were like flower gardens in pinks and blues and mauves and touches of pale yellow with pink hats. Pink roses and baby's breath bouquets. The boys were tall and straight. I very nearly broke down during Mass when I looked at the four black-clad young backs. Jimmy and Michael, Paul and Pat. They have been so close all their lives, Mauro, Jimmy's best man, was a close school buddy.
The reception was packed. The K.C. Hall crowded. Punch, first. (No pun intended) and then a delicious sit-down supper. Jimmy made a nice little speech of thanks to everyone, and a special thanks to Don and Vange Sunstrum, for Sue.
The dance started and EVERYONE danced! The whole St. Mary's College football team were there. It was the youthful happy feeling that touched me so. Sue and Jimmy had such fun themselves, dancing with everyone, visiting. Jimmy dancing with Ede, his godmother, 78 years spry, and With Lena, his Grand Aunt.When he was little, Lena once said to Jimmy "I'll dance at your wedding, Jimmy." And he had answered very seriously. "Oh, you'll he DEAD by then, Lena." So there they were, dancing at his wedding. Paul was dancing with Nora, Michael was being decorous with Sheila, and madly swinging with Mary Ann. Patrick announcing that he might as well go the whole way and dance with his Mother and his Aunt Kay or he would never hear the end of it.
When we were dancing I told him how proud I was of the four of them. He looked wistful and said, "Yes, but our leader is gone!"
When I was dancing with Jimmy, he said, "Just relax and do your own thing.
So I whirled twice around him and then cut through the middle of another couple, and returned to him. You needn't carry it that far, Mother! People came and went in the hotel room after we left the dance. At 2 a.m. Wilf was trying to find some restaurant that would send in food. A phone call came to the Sunstrums Jimmy and Sue were in the Sault visiting with Suzanne and Joel who had to miss the wedding because of the 1ooming birth of the lump"
It was over! ... Something old . . . . something new - - - - something borrowed..., something blue.
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