Good morning D-League
It is a pleasant Saturday morning and the coffee taste mighty good this time of day. Temperatures will be in the 80's by mid afternoon. I am headed down to Indian Rocks Beach for a few days. Staying in a nice little cottage on the Gulf of Mexico. Old school. Celebrating my 52 year wedding anniversary.
On this day in 1967 my Commanding Officer gave me a 3 day pass to marry my fiancee of two years. I was stationed at Fort Knox, KY and we were married in Ashville, North Carolina. When I picked up my pass the Captain said you better come back here a married man, and stay out of Louisville. I really didn't have any money back then making less than $100 a month as a soldier boy so my girl gave me a $20.00 bill and said "let's do this". I had saved my money and bought a ring so that cost was covered. North Carolina required a pre-marital physical exam by a doctor and a blood test. That cost me $6.00. (still have the receipt). Our marriage license was $5.00. I gave the preacher man $5.00 at the First Baptist Church in downtown Ashville to marry us and we had a few dollars left over to buy some gas and get back to the U.S. Army.
That is how you did it 52 years ago. They said we wouldn't last 6 months. They were wrong. Oh, the reason we picked April 7 as our wedding day. Because in 1967 the NCAA tournament was over and I did not want our future anniversaries to conflict with the NCAA basketball tournament. It was finished by the end of March in those days.