family history

[coraa]

I was taking to my parents this weekend, a little about wedding stuff, and my mom shared an anecdote that I'd either never heard or had forgotten.

See, my mom's side of the family has a family tradition of eloping. My great-grandparents eloped. My grandparents eloped. My aunt and uncle eloped. My other aunt and uncle eloped. My parents didn't elope, but they got married in West Berlin in 1981, so no family could make it to the wedding anyway. I think there are miscellaneous great-aunts and -uncles and cousins that also eloped.

The part I hadn't remembered was that apparently my grandfather's sisters had kept, for years, the telegram my grandfather sent from Reno:

"Married Connie. See you soon. Love, Bill."

(That's the grandmother I was named after, of course.)

Comments

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

That is awesome.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Did I miss something? When are you getting married?

My family is an elopement family all 'round. My cousins had weddings. My uncle swore my wedding would be the next time he'd get a chance to wear his new shoes. That was ten years ago. No groom in sight.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

The boy and I got engaged in December, and I posted about it then, but it was right around the confusion of the holidays. :) We'll probably get married in September.

We'll have a wedding, 'cause the boy would like one and so would his family, and I'm fine with that. I do love the elopement tradition, though; it's so sensible!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh Cora, I love your icon! I loved Bread and Jam for Frances so, so much. I wanted to make lunches just like the ones she had at the end of that story.

And a family tradition of eloping is totally awesome.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

Maybe I told you congratulations then, too; I don't know. Short-term memory isn't what it might be. It feels like new news though, so ^_^

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I definitely missed this. I had a lot going on this holidays. Congratulations!

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

You could elope and then come back to the party. Though I realize that wouldn't really maintain the spirit of the elopement tradition... (says the guy whose wedding involved 10 people, including the officiant)

[cwendy41.livejournal.com]

I was going to say too that you could elope :) Then crash your own wedding.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I still have the note I found on my dorm room door from my roommate sophomore year: "Your Mom called. She's married."

This did not, oddly, make her any happier when, a decade later, lnhammer and I eloped ...

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

I second Asakiyume ... Bread and Jam for Frances!

My DH loved reading this to our kids. Her lunches were the best. We still joke about the little shakers of salt and pepper. And jump-rope rhymes.

sigh

good luck with eloping ; )

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already seen this: http://www.slate.com/id/2247489/?from=rss