I’m in Lubbock with my wife for the weekend. We’re celebrating my parent’s 60th Wedding Anniversary! Can you imagine such a thing? I suppose some of you couples have eclipsed the 60-year mark, but nowadays 60 years together is quite an accomplishment. My dad turned 80 this year, and my mom will be 82.
My parents married in 1963. The first full-color television program in the world aired that year. The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio. John Franklin “Home Run” Baker died in 1963 – he was a baseball hero from the dead ball era. He hit 12 home runs some years in the early 1920s and that was considered great. Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, born in 1874, was still alive. We were less than 20 years after the end of World War II so that conflict was fresh in people’s minds as we waded into Vietnam. The Cold War was in full swing, and my father was a young 20-year-old military man. He knew full well that the country had already been through two world wars and was flirting with another one. In 1963, MLK wrote his letter from the Birmingham Jail, and, of course, JFK would be killed in Dallas later that year. Times were tense. I wonder now if anyone asked Herbert Hoover what he thought about JFK being assassinated.
Less than 1/3 of the people who were alive on the earth in 1963 are still alive. That’s an interesting thought.
My wife and I only have 31 years married, so we’re newbies and we still have a long way to go on this road. We’re doing all right though. I asked my Dad (which is what you do) what the secret was and he said “1. Marry early, 2. Don’t Die, 3. Don’t get divorced.” Sounds like a sound plan to me. With my dad’s 60 years, my 31 years, and my son already has 6 years of marriage… together we have 97 years of marriage among the Bunker men. We’re all trying to follow the 3-step rules my father laid out, so if we can all do that for another year, we’ll hit 100 years if the Lord wills!
Events like this allow you to see time passing and analyze it. It’s an opportunity to contextualize events in your life. My parents got married when the world was aflame with tension, the boom-boom 50s were over and the world, well, times they were a-changin’. My wife and I were married in 1992. The boom-boom 80s were over and the era of political shenanigans and division was beginning.
Here in Lubbock, my grandchildren are running or crawling around and squealing and having fun. I just heard one in the other room ask for waffles. They don’t know what a great gift it is to sit in the lap of a vital and active great-grandparent. Some day some of them will remember it. Do you have fond memories of your grandparents or great-grandparents?
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.
