June 18 Again...

Maybe life really is all about weddings and babies!

I can replay nearly every detail of only three days of my life, July 1, 2000, when I married Ken Wilson, February 22, 1958, when my son, Steve, was born, and Saturday, June 18, 1955, when I married Bob Elders. Fifty-six years later, the date falls on a Saturday once more.

I still remember:

• Walking to the beauty parlor to get my very first professional haircut.
• Arguing with my sister over a crinoline hoop slip that she wanted to borrow, and which I needed to make my wedding dress stand out all around.
• Ironing my grandmother's wrinkled suit skirt after she arrived in Lynwood from Ontario.
• Keeping my fingers crossed that the best man, Neil Widener, wouldn't produce a potato peeler instead of the rings, as he had threatened to do...but not quite remembering why this had been a running joke for several weeks.
  
• Marrying Bob Elders in front of about a hundred family members and friends.
  
• Forgetting my Uncle Howard's name in the reception line.
• Changing into my going away dress, a sleeveless black sheath with zebra piping around the neckline.
• Cutting the cake at the reception in the basement of St. Luke Lutheran Church.
  
• Sneaking away from the second reception at Bob's parent's house in Downey to drive to Long Beach to spend the night at the Villa Riviera, when it was the swankiest hotel in town.
• Worrying that I'd get seasick on the next day's seaplane flight to Avalon on Catalina Island.
  
• Realizing that Bob had to be my legal guardian until June 28 when I'd turn 18.
• Wondering where I'd be on subsequent June 18ths.

Today is my granddaughter, Kendra's, second birthday...I'll never forget the date.