(Chapter 13: The wedding)
(Wow, just realized the irony of the number and subject matter of this chapter. Who knew.)
As the state of Ohio requires those wishing to apply for a marriage license be at least 21 years of age, or have parental consent, we were facing a bit of a problem from the start. My sister Judy had been down this road before and quickly suggested getting married in Newport, KY, where you only need to be 18.
No problem for me, as I was 20 already, but Debbie was only 17, so we needed a doctored birth certificate to make it appear that she was 18. We made a copy of her actual birth certificate and then using white out we changed the date on the copy. Once that was done we made another copy of the copy and used that. It was very evident that the date had been changed and you aren’t really supposed to use a photo copy, but they accepted it and that was that.
Judy was instrumental in guiding us as neither one of us knew what had to be done as far as a blood test, etc. But we managed to get everything we needed and so on Saturday, April 15th, (or the 22nd, I can never remember which one), in front of a JP in Newport, KY, Debbie and I became man and wife. A very happy occasion for me, at the time.
Judy and Huey were our witnesses, along with her 3 young girls, Becky, Rachel and Angie. We didn’t tell anyone of our friends, but it so happened that my best friend in high school, Steve, got married the same day to his high school sweetheart, Sandy, so we attended their reception. After the party we went back to Judy and Huey’s place as they had recently acquired an actual house in the suburbs by this time.
I must of been pretty well out of it as I don’t remember my wedding night. I believe we were both so tired that we just fell asleep and that was that. I’m not really sure what Debbie had told her parents for the reason she would not be home, but our wedding night was spent at Judy and Huey’s and that was about all I remember.
I do remember one other thing, Tom had a big date that night and asked to borrow my Chevy as it was a much nicer car than the ’65 GTO he had recently acquired. But the GTO had 3 deuces and a 4 speed, and so I was happy with the trade.
Sometime between getting the news that Debbie was pregnant and the time we got married, we managed to find a nice little apartment in Westwood at 3154 BrackenWoods Ln. Don’t ask me how I remember the number, I just do. We had not yet told her parents, so it would be some time before we could really live as husband and wife and that was hell.
We made the decision to tell her parents that we were married, but not that she was pregnant. Her father had a heart condition and too big of a shock might not be good for him. We figured we could break the having a baby part a little later on. So we did, there was crying and a lot of questions as to why, but we managed to somewhat convince them that she was not pregnant.
It was decided that Debbie would still spend most of her time living at her parents house as she was still in school, but once she graduated we would be together at last and I was very much looking forward to being with her every night. Don’t get me wrong, the sex is nice, but just being married and sleeping with your wife every night has some attraction to it as well.
There was a bit of a controversy when the school discovered she was pregnant, they were not going to let her take part in the graduation ceremony. I can’t remember what the outcome of that was, but Debbie was showing a bit by now, so the cat was pretty much out of the bag with her parents as well. They accepted the fact and pretty much knew it all along.
As my son (Chris), was born October 6th, we figured he was conceived sometime in early January, and more than likely the blessed event took place in her bedroom at home. So all you parents who think as long as the kids are home everything is hunky dory, just remember that kids will be kids.
By now my parents pretty much knew that I was on my way out and didn’t make much of a fuss. They had seen me leave before, so it was not such a big deal this time. I had a good job and could afford to support a wife and child, so that was their main concern.
I got my wish soon after Debbie was out of school and we moved in together. I was happy to go to work each day and come home to a hot meal and a pretty wife. Things were good, for the most part, but we had our share of problems as newlyweds often do. Join me next time for some tales about married life.
For those who would like to follow the count, I will keep a running tally of my vehicle list here.
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