"Our Wedding," from HOME IS WHERE....

        About our wedding, briefly:  We had a small church wedding and a reception in the yard, planned and put together in just two weeks. It was very nice, with lots of friends and relatives and the local rock band, “The Sound Senders,” which had all the girls hanging around them. One of Tom's relatives spiked the punch, and---after many visits to the punch bowl---Doreen fell right over. Dad, who had started drinking beer from the keg even before the church service, made it to around 4 p.m. and was put to bed and slept, waking around 7 p.m., only to find everyone was gone and the party was over. He was none too happy. He never let anyone forget it.

         When I started to date Tom, my curfew time was raised to from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. We always made the deadline. When we came home, we would sit in the car and say goodbye. A couple of times we caught Doreen watching us. One night after the movies, we sat under the hickory nut tree, and there was Doreen…looking out her bedroom window.

         I'm an early riser and an early-to-bed person, the same way I have always been. As young children we had our signals which meant it was bedtime. The one I remember most was Sunday nights: the last show of the night was The Roy Rogers Show. The theme song was, "Happy Trails to You," and when that started to play at the end of the show, Daddy would get up and say, "Happy trails to you," and off we went.

         When we had company for a visit or for an over-night stay, we hated to go to bed. We always thought we were missing something or maybe there were some snacks we weren't included in on, and we would sneak a peek on the way to the bathroom.

         When Tom and I decided to get married, we ordered our invitations. They came and were made out and were on the hall table to be mailed. Doreen and I got into a fight. I don't remember why, but she picked the invitations up and threw them all over the hall, and then we got into a knock-down, drag-out fight. It was the last big fight we ever had.

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        We are serializing Kathleen Blake Shields's recently published book, Home is Where the Story Begins: Memoir of a Happy Childhood, published by Outskirts Press and available from OP and on-line booksellers like amazon.com and bn.com.

        I am proud to have coached Kathy and edited this charming book. My web site is http://WriteYourBookWithMe.com.