Sixty Five years ago today, (August 21, 1943) I was married in Storrs, Connecticut. The wedding wasn’t very elaborate according to today's weddings.....Now it is the long white dress, veil, church full of people, large dinner, lovely cake and a honeymoon.
Then it was just two young people, far away from home, during war time....and being married in the Mayor's home, where I was rooming. An Army buddy stood up with Dale and a UConn Student (I'd only known 2 weeks) stood by me. I even wore her shoes, as mine weren't nice enough. Mrs. Hall played the piano while I came down a few stairs. The Minister from the Congregational Church in Willimantic Connecticut married us......Mrs. Hall (June) had set the table with a nice linen tablecloth, a vase of garden flowers and she had baked a cake.....it had no icing because of sugar rationing.....lucky to just have a cake. All four of the Hall kids and Burt ( their Dad) were there...and they thought it a big deal.
After the ceremony and the cake......we had to ride to Willimantic with the Preacher (we gave him either $5 or $10) for marrying us.
Once in town, we stopped at a restaurant and we both had a spaghetti dinner....Dale was so nervous, he hardly ate a thing, but I ate mine and finished up his.....(must have been a charming bride, sitting there eating spaghetti and garlic bread).
We had reservations at the Nathan Hale hotel for that Saturday night. Sunday evening, we hopped on a bus, and headed back to Storrs. Dale's Army group had to stay at a dorm on Campus, and I went back to the Halls and the room I shared with the college student .....There was no honeymoon to some distant island, a cruise, or even any free time because Dale was in Service and due in Class on Monday morning I had to be back at my new Secretarial job with the Department of Engineering on the Storrs Campus.
I had taken a vacation from my job at the U of I, and our getting married depended upon me being able to find a job in Connecticut. I was fortunate as I was hired on my first interview. It’s a good thing because we had only $98 between the two of us.
Later Dale was transferred to Medford, Oregon, then to San Luis Obispo, California, and from there sent to the South Pacific.
He was in the Philippines, and the Invasion of Okinawa, returning home January 1946.
In 1993 we celebrated our 50th Anniversary. Our three sons planned the affair with many attending, beautiful gifts, and Roger baked us the most beautiful wedding cake…….This time the cake had icing (and lots of it).
Dale passed away just two months before our 59th Anniversary.
