70 Years Ago Today . . .

. . . my parents married in St James Church, Paisley and then took two coach loads of guests up to Marlborough House in Glasgow for a swish reception. It was quite a treat for those Paisley Buddies!

Mum was absolutely aware of her anniversary when I called today. Due to my father’s premature death they had only celebrated 24 of them together. She recalled the night with great detail and relish including the songs the aunts sang as party pieces; many guests of both sexes took their turn in this long-gone custom. What talent such groups housed and what encouragement given to share them in events like this or just round the living room at home on a Saturday night when spinster sisters, like my Aunts Nancy and Cassie, gathered for a blather and a whisky with lemonade.

It would have been a 100 years of life and 70 years of marriage that my father would have celebrated this year if he had lived beyond 53 years. I just realised today that we were both thirty years old when we married . . . it gave me a little something, a little sense of ‘like father like son’. I hope in other ways, too!