OUR WEDDING WEEK

Debbie and I were married on August 11, 1973, (at 6:30 PM) in the New Brighton Free Methodist Church.  The church was packed - including the overflow rooms in the back of the sanctuary!

My 'Best Man' was my boyhood best friend, Bob Creese.  He was a nervous wreck!  I remember taking him out the back door of the church so he could smoke, to calm his nerves!

Dave Eakin was the officating pastor.  He was Debbie's pastor from the Rochester, PA Free Methodist Church.  He wasn't much older than us! 

Our reception was at a firehall in Beaver Falls.  It was crowded! 

Some "friends" smeared my car windows with grease and put limberger cheese on my engine.  I had to drive directly to a car wash before we could leave for our honeymoon!  Some "trusted" family sprinkled rice all through my honeymoon clothes and put big, red, X's on my underwear!  I learned a lot that day about who you could trust and who you couldn't!

We drove to Marienville, PA for our first night.  We stayed at Aunt Dorothy (Whippo's) chalet.  On Monday, we went to Conneaut Lake Park to spend the day.  We ran into Joe Plasmire from the New Brighton Church;  he bought us ice cream cones!  We laid on the beach for part of the day.  Then we drove to 'The Summit' in the Pocono Mountains for a three-day stay at a honeymoon resort!

Debbie and I were awarded a trophy at dinner the first evening for being 'The Best in The Sack'!  [We had won the sack races that afternoon!]  Unfortunately, Deb developed an infection while we were there, but we still enjoyed the heart-shaped tub and the first king-sized bed we'd ever seen!

Then we went back to my folks' home, packed a U-Haul truck and left for Wilmore, Kentucky, where we set up house-keeping in a duplex apartment owned by Asbury Theological Seminary.

Humble beginnings, but may Troy and Missy be as blessed as we were!