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Aunt Barb and Uncle Jack 1954

So many good things keep happening during this time and life must go on. Friday was the wedding anniversary of my dear aunt and uncle, Barbara and Jack, who hit the 66th year mark. they married in June of 1954.  How amazing is that?!?!?! I personally don't know anyone married that long, and these days it seems hard to even make it to twenty. My aunt Barbara is the one who is the most excellent cook and baker, who learned everything she knows from Julia Child, and she has one hell of a rose garden. Incidentally, it's also where I got my love of gin and classical music too. My uncle, after the service, was a Physics Professor for years at Rutgers University, before he retired and they moved back to the Harrisburg area. The 66 years just blows my mind with the same person. The funny part as was regaled to me by my aunt, they met on a blind date at a dance. They hit it off, but she forgot to get his number. A few weeks later, her friend did get his number and they started dating.  After 4 months, when my uncle's service job at the time took him to Alaska,  she followed, and got into another nursing school. They continued dating,  but did it secretly, it was frowned upon heavily that nursing students should be dating. 

It got better, because then they secretly got married there!!!! Eventually they headed back east after the first child was born, and that's where my uncle started teaching at Rutgers, and they settled in Westfield NJ. After two years of being secretly married they told the family, and needless to say my grandparents were upset, as they wanted her to have a big church wedding. Didn't happen. My mother was the one who got the big church wedding,  and she was the one who didn't want one. My aunt and uncle went on the have 6 kids, 8 grandkids and one great grandchild. She never did go back to nursing...hence all the cooking and baking. Once the kids were all grown and out, heading toward their senior years, sold the huge Victorian they had,  and moved back to Harrisburg in 1998, where my uncle went into teaching part- time at the Harrisburg Academy in chemistry and physics, and only just resigned six years ago. Their children are all over the country.  My aunt and uncle are also the ones who taught and told me to respect the earth and all it's inhabitants. For their age , there both sharp as whips, hip on current things and even smoke weed on occasion.  I just feel bad we couldn't have had a nice dinner celebration for them on the day, but we do have plans to have a dinner for them soon.

Aunt Barb and Uncle Jack  in summer of 2012

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

But 66 years!!!!!