Friday, October 02, 2009

JnJ's anniversary


In 1964 my brother got married in Texas. It was Joan and my senior year of high school and mom n dad told us we'd be going to Texas for the wedding. Mom drove there with Gram but Joan and I flew there with Dad on a Friday night I think it was. Dad was apparently scared to death of flying because he got bombed before we left LAX. But he did manage to write me a great poem about using the plane barf bag... written ON the plane barf bag... I wish I still had that poem. It was so funny. "If this bag you have to use, please don't puke upon my shoes..."
We landed in Dallas/Ft Worth and had to take a "puddle jumper" to some town about 40 minutes away by air. Dad had his hands white-knuckled to the armrests on the last plane. It was so bumpy and a great thrill ride if you are 17 and excited to be flying somewhere. But for Dad it probably brought back memories of military flights that he hated to recall.
The wedding was fun but my brother had a silly dazed look on his face that day... I would later learn we ALL would have that silly dazed look when we got married. It is just a look you get when you're getting married.

We all posed for a family photo at the reception.

My mom's father (Grandpa Dennehy) and her sister Stasia Cadieux and brother Eddie Dennehy came as well from Chicago. My dad would tell his in-law family that they were all a bunch of dirty damn democrat hoodlums and crooks, and Uncle Eddie or Grandpa Dennehy would say, "Well, at least we ain't from da land of da fruits and da nuts like youse guys in Louse Angelsss". It was always so fun hearing dad talk about mom's relatives. not.
Anyway, it was the 60's. We were all nicely dressed for the occasion, me in my sack dress with fabric belt, Joan in something quite more stylish as usual. I am on the left by Dad (with his big white hair he sported in those days). Joan is on the right next to Gram. A few years later there would be a famous bride that had the same look as Jean did that day... Priscilla Presley! Dark hair, dark eyebrows blue eyes.
I recall Jim telling his sisters (us) to stay away from his buddy Roger, the Eskimo, because he drank too much and wanted a wife to take back to his Alaska igloo, and Jim didn't want one of us to be her.
So Happy 45th Anniversary tomorrow, Jim n Jean!! Hasn't it been an adventure!!