Marriage

[Louis the fly]

The first time I got married I went into it with eyes firmly closed, just seemed to be a good at the time. This was in my happy hippy years, I wore a yellow suit, flower power shirt and green shoes. My bride wore a kaftan top as a dress with flowers sellotaped to her bare feet.
Didn't last long, but it is far harder to get out of a marriage than getting in.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Louis, the mind boggles, some things are best kept secret!

[Red Lead Ted]

Never forget my wedding outfit, A right dapper, Beige 3 Piece Suite, Highly polished brogue shoes, White Socks, Laurel and Hardy Heads shirt, Big red cravat tie, Golden Blond locks, Pissed as a Fart { Stag night didn't finish until 11am the next morn } Thank god I never finished paying that dollar a week for them wedding photos.

[Rodney Mills]

I have been married twice. The first time I was married in London (Edmonton) four days before we left on the Sylvania for Canada. It was a miserable wedding followed by twenty four years, Ten months, four days of misery ( but who counts).

My former mother-in-law was a peach (read the gender name for a female dog). I had snapped a photo of a bobby tying the shoelace of a guard OUTSIDE the gates of Buck House. I won 125 pounds in an Evening Star photo contest. That was a heck of a lot of money in 1958, I made twenty-two pounds a month as second Asst. Cook on the UCL. It went straight in the bank along with my and my wife to be savings.

The "peach" blew a gasket as she had figured we should have a big knees-up and spend the lot. Well, my wife-to-be was eighteen when we planned to get married and I was twenty. The "peach" said "Yes you can get married and go to Canada, but it's to be a white wedding with all the trimmings and we (her and her husband) are not paying a penny of it as we are going on holidays on the following day."

There went most of my prize money. It was a disaster. the two grans didn't want to come, but showed up at the sit down dinner, and stood in the back and watched us eat. Two of the "guests" got into a punch-up.
etc. etc.

When I proposed to my second wife, I told her we are only going to tie-the-knot in some far off place, just ourselves, no one is invited. No problem, she had gone through a similar ordeal having been married once before too.

We were married out on the desert in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Oz. Just us, a Uniting Church of Australia minister officiating, and an Oz, couple we had met in a camp ground as maid-of-honor and best man.

It was great. We did everything they do in a large formal wedding, tin cans tied to the rear bumper of our camper, Wedding cake with a bride and groom on top (we had to drive to Alice Springs and back to buy the bride and groom and order the flowers), A sit-down dinner for four, bird seed instead of confetti, and we sent out invites to the states the day before the wedding by mail, so nobody could claim they were not invited.

It was a load of fun. And we honeymooned out on the desert (on a camel safari) and watched Halley's comet in the best place it was possible to observe it in the world, on the best possible night too.

We've had twenty-nine wonderful, fantastic years and hoping for another twenty-nine. Oh! And we can both wear our wedding outfits, no changes in sizes.

We retired five months before our wedding, we spend twenty-four hours a day together and only once were apart for a week. So as far as I'm concerned, I went from misery as a child and an awful first marriage to sheer bliss, and for me... life began at forty-seven.

Rodney:

[Louis the fly]

Louis, the mind boggles, some things are best kept secret!

Youth is a time of learning , experimenting , rebelling against the norms of society and feeling invincible. Youth is also the time we make the most mistakes in life, we learn from the mistakes and become stronger and wiser. Youth is when we feel the most optimistic and for the majority the happiest time in our lives.
We can look back and think of all the foolish things we did, but it was great fun at the time.

[gray_marian]

#25, Louis, Since the age of 12, have had an old head on young shoulders due to a family tragedy. Therefore never allowed myself to have an inkling to experiment or rebel or felt invincible. Any risk I have ever taken has always been a calculated one I've been most fortunate with my family and now too with my grandchildren, all an absolute joy. I strive to be optimistic and every day I aim for several laughs. I never ever intend to stop learning or having fun

[Louis the fly]

Life takes us all on many different directions and experiences , it was a generalization of life some may recognize , others may not.
When swinging about on a top mast I never thought I might fall , a nineteen year old soldier never thinks he may be shot and killed. This happens to other people not me, feeling invincible. Taking risks was an everyday occurrence, as you get older you learn to minimize the risk.
Laughing and learning is good for mind, body and soul.