Once upon a time in a little country church......part 1

On Sunday DH and I will be celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary. I can say many things about being married for 24 years, but I guess the main thing that I can say in all honesty is that it has been an adventure and that I would do it all over again.

DH husband and I started dating in May of 83, we became engaged in August, and married in December. DH wanted to get married in September, but my mother had a fit. She wanted a big ta-do, and there was just no way she could get a wedding together in such a short amount of time. We wanted a small family affair, but......we were out voted and out powered by a woman with a wedding on her mind. With that said here is our wedding story.



Once upon a time a young cowboy fell in love with a ravishing, Ok this is my story, and I can be ravishing if I wanna be, farmers daughter. As time went by this farmers daughter found this young man to be a man of great worth. He was honest, trustworthy, honorable, and very cute. One day it occurred to her, she was a little slow sometimes, that she had indeed fallen in love with him. To make a long story short, since both of them were thinking the same way, they decided the next thing for them to do was to get married. They were of the same mind, soon, and small. But alas a small bump crept into their road toward happiness. That bump was..... DM, mine to be exact.

Now the cowboy and the farmers daughter were not to concerned about anything. I mean if you decide you want to get married, then do it. What is the point of a long drawn out engagement. Just get it done. Then get on with life. Seemed a practical thing to them.Needless to say when we approached Dm with out well thought out plan, she was horrified. Apparently it would take months, possible a year to plan this gala event. It would be just impossible to get a wedding together in any less time. That news did not sit well with future Dh to be. He had made up his mind, I could see that two hard heads were about to butt. Clear the building please!

After much, " discussion," a compromise was reached. A December wedding was to be announced. Small and family was out the window. Large and organized was in. DM was in 7th heaven. Wedding planning books, lists, days set aside to shop. It was better than Christmas. She was in her glory. Let the wedding planning began!

During this time future Dh decided that he needed another job. He had been working for Swenson Land and Cattle company for a few years. But changes came to the old ranch. The thought was that just your common everyday cowboys were...how shall I say this...not very bright. College educated cowboys were much smarter, I mean they did have a paper that hung on the wall saying so. Well the thought was that if they got rid of all the not so bright, uneducated cowboys, and got all college educated cowboys, that the ranch would run ever so much better, bring in more profit, and just be generally better off. You guessed it, all the not so bright cowboys were given their walking papers, told adios, take a hike etc. The A&M boys were on their way and ready to go. Of course a few had to stay behind for just a bit....seems some of the A&M boys were never given a lesson on how to bridle, or saddle a horse. But heck what did it matter, they had a degree.

This left DFH out of a job. He would most likely have been on his way west, but stunned as he was by little ole me, he just couldn't make the break. Just to show you how much he loved and adored me he took a job....shhhhh, this is not a well know fact...um driving a tractor, and working at a grain elevator. It just happened to be about 3 miles from my house. So one Sunday afternoon he moved all his worldly goods into his new abode. It took about 10 minutes. Here is a list of his worldly goods.
1 saddle
1 saddle blanket
1 pair of Klapper Spurs
Various cinches, bridles, bits etc.
1 pair shotgun leggings
1 green army box full of.....stuff
2 duffel bags with with his clothes
1 pillow and some sheets.
That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. He believed in traveling light.
You might be thinking, was I concerned about his lack of worldly goods? I mean would we both have to share the green army box? Would it have to double as both a table, and a place to sit? In answer to your question. NO, I was in love. If we had to live in his pickup, sleep with one pillow and one sheet. Cook on the ground, live in a cave. It didn't matter. I was marrying him and that was that. Anyway I digress. I seem to have been caught up in the moment and gotten off track.

As I was saying FDH decided he needed a new job. With all the love he had in his heart for me, driving a tractor and living at a grain elevator was not his idea of a good time, or a place to bring his new bride. So off on the job trail he went. I need to explain how a cowboy in those days, got a job. There were two main ways. The first way was this, the cowboy grape vine. You would go to a place that cowboys were known to frequent. Boot and saddle shops, feed stores, the occasional bar, a rodeo was a primo place. You never knew who would be in town and what news they would have. They would just start visiting, and before you know it the subject of jobs would come up. They might find out that ole so-in-so down by Aspermont was hiring , why the last fella left, what the pay was, were the horses rank, and was it a "Cowboy outfit", or a "nester", run place. The visit would usually end with the exchange of phone numbers, a hand shake and a good luck to ya. The second way of landing a job was to get in your rig and take out in the general direction of the place where you might want to live. No point in going the direction you didn't want to live. Example...if you liked the caprock country you headed toward the caprock. If you like the panhandle country, you headed toward the panhandle. Pretty simple plan. The next part of the plan was this. If you saw a little headquarters off the highway a bit, and you liked the way it looked, you just pulled off the highway, moseyed on down, and asked the fella that came to the door if they were hiring, or knew of somebody that was. Now it would be rude to just jump out and go to talking. You had to be polite. So small talk was made, a little dirt was kicked with the toe of a shop made boot... and finally with hands in pockets the question was asked. " Hey you wouldn't be needing somebody would you?"And if the question was negative, the next question was asked, " do you happen to know anybody that is?" Sometimes that got you on down the road to another ranch, and sometimes not. This was FDH's mode of job hunting. So one Sunday afternoon, with me riding shotgun off we went.

FDH pointed us west. What an adventure! We were going to find a job. Never a thought of not finding a job went through our heads. We traveled toward Dickens. Stopped got a coke, and off we went again. We turned south, driving down toward the Beggs Land and Cattle company. Dh's dad had worked there years ago. It was known as, " a good outfit". No luck they were full up. On to the Forks, no luck they were full up. Not to be discouraged we drove on. Finally off in the distance we saw a headquarters. We pulled in Dh did the whole cowboy, kicking the dirt, small talk thing. The question was asked. Tension hung heavy in the air. I didn't breathe......what was the answer? Did we have a job? Or was the house at the grain elevator where we would be setting up housekeeping? Stay tuned for ....part 2