Today, this minute 40 years ago Kathy and I were married. We were young, 19 years old and full of love and hope. We did not have much of a plan past the honeymoon. Which was in exotic Chattanooga TN.
We went to Ruby Falls and Lookout Mountain and stayed in the Holiday Inn, We drove her 1971 Ford Maverick with no air conditioning and left my gas guzzling 1967 GTO at home. This was 1973, gas prices had jumped up to an astonishing 55 cents a gallon and the oil embargo was underway. Soon there would be lines at the gas stations and rationing was the fear for mobile America. We didn’t know it would one day be $4 a gallon. We didn’t care. We were MARRIED! And on our way.
We spent all our money on the honeymoon which was not much. When we got home on Monday, we had no food in our apartment, so we went over to my folks’ house. Not too much there, we ended up eating a cheese sandwich. We didn’t care, we were MARRIED!
We did not know that 9 months later we would move from Montgomery to Columbus. We did not know that 6 months after that I would quit my job and start my first business. We did not know that 4 years later we would sell that business and me take a job as a dental lab tech.
We did not know that we would get pregnant and have miscarriages twice in two years. We never anticipated the pain that would hold for us.
We did not know that on March 20th 1980 we would have our daughter Heather. We never thought about the joy we were going to experience being parents. We also did not know about the fear that being parents brings to your life. Fear for their well being, fear for their future, fear that you will live up to the challenge of being a parent.
We didn’t know that 4 years later we would do it all over again when Joseph was born Sept 25th 1984. Again, the love, the hope, the fear.
We did not know that our love of music and art would be a driving force in our lives. We did not know that buying that first used Canon Ftb would set us on a course of the pursuit of photography that would be a career for us and also for our children.
There are lots more things we did not know that fills in a lot more space between the lines written above. We did not know and we did not care, We were MARRIED!
Forty years have come and gone and it is good not to know the future. All that we did not know on Sept 15th 1973 became our life together, our history, our unique story…..and it is not finished yet. No not yet.
We look forward to the future together. Experiencing and learning about all that we do not yet know that will be our life.
We are MARRIED still!
Peace.
Joe and Kathy
Bambi Smith - c Congratulations Kathy and Joe on 40 years of marriage together. What wonderful examples the two of you are big hugs Bambi and Steve
Dannielle P - Congratulations!!!