63 and Counting

I know this is supposed to be a blog about stepping gracefully away from full-time motherhood but my wandering mind doesn't always stick to the rules. And since I'm the one sitting down to type the damn thing, I think I have to write about the spirits that move me and tonight I'm thinking a lot about the institution that got me into this whole motherhood thing in the first place. That's right. . .tonight I'm thinking about marriage and what a tough, impossible, challenging, rewarding, wonderful little sucker it can be.

April 22nd, 1950. A pound of hamburger cost thirty cents. A gallon of gas was a little more than half that and a new car to put it in could be had for $1500. It was also the time when a couple of crazy kids decided to get married. They had known each other for all of six months. He had turned twenty in February and she left her teenage years behind the day before her wedding. Their reception was catered by friends and they honeymooned in a leaky, cold cottage in Wisconsin.

April 22nd, 2013. A pound of hamburger costs $3.69 on sale (unless you're into that organic, non-antiobiotic variety which might have you reconsidering the merits of vegetarianism). A gallon of gas is now hovering around the $4 mark. And a new car. . .well, let's just say that when I helped my son buy his used car recently, the salesman told me we wouldn't be able to get anything for less than $10,000.

And what about those two crazy kids. . .the ones I left back in 1950? They made it through it all - sixteen Presidential elections, a stint in the military, a couple of kids, several job-related moves, women's liberation, and more than a few economic downturns. They argue about what happened when and who said what to whom. They finish each others' sentences and they share dinners at Olive Garden. They show up at as many family events as their tired bodies allow and still manage to get in a round of golf or a few hours at the casino. They also bring more joy, wisdom, compassion and laughter into the lives of anyone lucky enough to hang with them than any two people on the planet . I should know. Those two crazy kids are my parents.And today is their anniversary.

63. It looks good on them.