70th Wedding Anniversary
Tomorrow would have been my parents 70th wedding anniversary. The above wedding photo was take in front of St. Patrick’s Church on May 3rd,1947. Mom & Dad had five children and I was the oldest, pictured at the far left on the photo below taken at my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary at the Minster KofC hall in 1962. I was 14.
Our family really enjoyed sports of all kinds, especially playing ball. There was hardly a summer day would go by without having a game. Mom liked to pitch while Dad and the rest of us would be in the field. Instead of a catcher, we used the wall of the corn crib for a backstop. We took turns batting, and whether getting a hit or an out, the batter would grab a glove and go to the field taking the place of someone who would be the next batter. We would then use fantom baserunners and keep track of the runs scored for each batter as they took their turn. Technically, we were counting RBI’s rather than runs scored, but who cared. There were no strikeouts, so everybody stay in the batters box until they hit the ball, which helped all of our batting skills improve. Since I was the oldest, to keep things fair, I would bat left handed and over time got quite good at it. But it never paid off in Little League, as our coach didn’t believe in switch hitting.
Sometimes, when our cousins would visit, we’d make up teams and create makeshift diamonds in whatever nearby field had been cleared as shown in the photo below next to the wheat field with the barn in the background. Since Dad had 13 brothers and sisters, while Mom had 10, we either had visitors every summer weekend or we visited one of their families when the ball games would always commence.
During the winter months, we would turn to basketball, playing all kinds of games, like “horse” or ‘pig” in our barn that looked a lot like the photo on the right. I’d sometimes go one on two against my sisters. If we had visitors, we’d make up teams and play a game of 21, win by two.
The gym set was always another fun place to play. We would have competitive games there as well, trying to see who could swing the highest, jump the farthest out of the swing, or hang upside down the longest. Dad was forever fixing things like the torn chains, worn out bolts and anchors. We beat the heck out of that set. The photo below must have been when it was new, since the grass below each swing soon disappeared, never to return.
During our recent visit over Easter, we had a chance to pay our respects to Mom & Dad interred in the family compound of grave-sites at the rear of St. Michael's cemetery overlooking the Loramie Creek. The wind was just right so the smell of freshly spread manure was prevalent in the air; or black gold as Dad used to call it. The burial compound was formed when Dad's younger brother Frank died suddenly on the 4th of July, 1979, after which all the family members residing in Ft. Loramie bought burial plots together next to Frank in the area of the cemetery circled in red below. The family farm was situated along the same creek further north, so being buried there together in the back next to the creek was considered by the close-knit family as the perfect spot to spend eternity!
Without that eventful day 70 years ago tomorrow, our family would not exist and we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy all the wonderful times together. For that I’m eternally grateful. A memorial mass in Mom & Dad's honor and also for my uncle Bob and Aunt Carolyn will be held tonight (May 2nd) at 6:30pm in St. Michael’s church. Unfortunately we cannot attend being here in Michigan, but no doubt the family will be well represented for the service and will undoubtedly reminisce about those awesome days.
Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad. Thanks for all the wonderful times and special memories.
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