It's Our Anniversary!

Thirty-six years ago today, my husband and I got married at the Spiritual Life Center on the campus of American University in Washington D.C. I sewed my own wedding dress (at a cost of $18.00) and sewed and embroidered my husband's shirt. We wrote our own wedding vows (it was the 70s--it was almost required to do so!). We had our wedding reception/dinner at a Korean restaurant in a hotel along Rock Creek Parkway which later became the Chinese Embassy. The whole thing cost about $400. *

My sister played Bach on the piano, and my brother played "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on the banjo. Together, they played Greensleeves. I wish we had recorded it! (Greensleeves is about love gone wrong, but we always liked the melody, and it doesn't appear to have jinxed our marriage.)

So, what are we doing to celebrate? We're going to a community party at an environmental reservation, at a beautiful spot overlooking the bay. Why? Because I'm playing cello there with the fiddlers as part of the festivities. I never would have foreseen this 36 years ago, though maybe my brother's banjo playing was a clue.

(* $2,029 at today's prices, according to Consumer Price Index calculator by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.)