Celebrating With Cerwin’s Mother
Wednesday, March 17
Tuesday, March 16, would have been Daddy and Mother’s Seventieth Wedding Anniversary, so Cerwin’s brother and sister agreed that we should take Mother out for supper, even though Daddy is no longer with us.
Daddy died ten years ago, just before their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
We asked Mother about their wedding day, March 16, 1940.
She said the wedding was supposed to be at 11:00 a.m. at her home near New Holland, Pennsylvania. However, it snowed that morning, delaying Daddy’s parents who had driven to his grandparent’s house to bring them to the wedding. (The grandparents drove a horse and buggy.)
The wedding finally started at 11:30 a.m., with about forty people in attendance. Their friends Sam and Martha were best man and maid of honor.
She said her aunts and uncles cooked the meal (meat loaf, mashed potatoes, peas, fruit salad, and cake), and several of her friends did the serving.
They did not go on a honeymoon. (I’m not sure many couples could afford a honeymoon at that time because of the war and all the food and gas rations.) That evening, they and Sam and Martha went to a youth meeting. After returning, she and Daddy stayed at her home, sleeping in her bedroom. The next morning they took her mother and younger siblings to church. Mother’s dad died when she was sixteen years old.
On Monday morning they loaded their car and a borrowed pickup truck with all their belongings and moved to a farm near Unicorn in southern Lancaster County, where Daddy worked as a hired man.
Daddy’s parents were refinishing a bed for them (a wedding gift), but it was not yet finished, so they slept in a single bed for a few nights. When the landowner found out that they were sleeping in a single bed, he suggested they sleep in their spare room until the bed arrived. (They lived in the same house as the farmer and his wife.)
There was no indoor plumbing, meaning they bathed in a round, galvanized tub – a wedding gift from her mother. The tub had been filled with home-canned items that Grandma prepared the summer before.
The only light in each room was one light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Mother cooked on a woodstove which also heated the house.
They eventually had these four children (left to right) Velda, Doris, Elvin, and Cerwin. Another daughter, Thelma, who was born with Down’s Syndrome, died of pneumonia before age two.
It was fun listening to Mother reminisce of those years gone by.
Elvin, laughing at a funny story that Mel was telling.
Mel (Velda’s husband) enjoying a story about Elvin
Velda laughing at the same story.
We missed Doris and Bob (who we just visited in Minnesota). This picture was taken at Mother’s ninetieth birthday party two-and-a-half years ago.
The evening reminded us of the great heritage we have through Cerwin’s parents.
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