Rob and I just returned from Denver, where we gathered with his mom’s family to celebrate his grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary.

I have nothing but superlative things to say about Rob’s grandparents. They are inspiring. Grandma Marge and Grandpa Dick bop around like they’re a good 20 years younger than their respective 79 and 81 years.

Last winter, we asked Grandpa Dick if he would get ordained on the Internet so he could marry us in Maui. He did, and it was wonderful. 

It was a huge honor for us that he was so intimately involved in our ceremony, and I think everyone enjoyed his personal touch. In fact, we appear to have started a trend, as several of our friends have gone on to incorporate their grandparents in their wedding ceremonies.

Rob has always adored his grandfather. They are two peas in a pod, so to speak, and indeed they behave and even look like twins 53 years removed, down to the awkward gap they like to leave between themselves and the next person when posing for a photo. Rob had his first beer, a Guinness, in Ireland with his grandfather. They share a quirky sense of fashion that includes Tilly hats and beaten-up, ugly-as-sin L.L. Bean boat shoes.

Rob’s grandmother has always been very dear to him, too. A retired schoolteacher, she used to help him with schoolwork and edit his papers in high school and, let’s be honest here, college. And even though he grew up living halfway across the country, his grandmother was incredibly involved in his childhood, down to knowing the specific details of his academic, extracurricular, and (when he allowed it) social life.

But they’re just like that. Whereas most “old people” like to talk (and hear themselves talk), telling the same stories over and over again to any audience that might willingly, begrudgingly, accidentally or otherwise present itself, Dick and Marge always want to know about you.

They’re healthy, they’re active, they’re engaged, and they love to laugh. And after 60 years of marriage, they still hold hands. If I only live to be half as old and half as happy as they are, I’ll know I will have had a great life.

At any rate, we were all asked to share something with Grandma and Grandpa at the beautiful anniversary party Rob’s mom and her sister organized. We intended to write (and perform) a little “We Didn’t Start The Fire”-inspired song, but, well, we all know how those things pan out. Instead, we wrote up a little history lesson — apropos coming from the historian and the writer, presented to the lawyer and the teacher. Boring, perhaps — but hopefully at least a little bit interesting.

More photos of the party at right. Hope you enjoy.

Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa!

Amanda:

The year is 1949. Harry Truman is inaugurated for a second term, and he unveils his Fair Deal program. This is the year that NATO is created, and the Geneva Convention forms.

Rob:

This year, China becomes a communist country, and Russia tests its first atomic bomb. In the UK, legal aid is born, though it won’t reach the United States for another several decades. Apartheid is made the official policy in South Africa.

Amanda:

In 1949, minimum wage is 70 cents an hour, and average yearly wages are under $3,000. You can buy a house for $1,900, or a new car for $1,400 and fill it up with gas for 17 cents a gallon. A men’s suit is $24.50, a Sealy mattress is $38, and you can buy the newly released Polaroid camera for $89.95.

Rob:

This year, there are still six surviving veterans of the US Civil War, and the Vatican discovers the bones of the apostle Peter.

Amanda:

Los Angeles receives its first-ever recorded snowfall, and the B50 Superfortress completes the first non-stop airplane flight around the world.

Rob:

1949 is the first year in which no African-American is lynched in the United States.

Amanda:

The first automatic street lights are installed, and the first 45 record is released this year. Candy Land and Silly Putty are born, as well as the world’s first computer.

Rob:

It is this year that brought the first Volkswagon Beetle to the US, and cars race around the Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina for the first NASCAR race.

Amanda:

The kids these days are watching Bozo The Clown, The Lone Ranger, and television’s first western, Hopalong Cassidy, and the first soap operas air on TV. For the first time, the Sears & Roebuck catalog includes television sets, and RCA perfects a system for broadcasting color television. The very first Emmy Awards are presented.

Rob:

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific opens on Broadway in 1949. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby all record the musical’s hit song, “Some Enchanted Evening,” but it was Perry Como’s version that topped the Billboard charts this year.

Amanda:

The top movie at the box office this year is All The King’s Men, which sweeps the 21^st Academy Awards. The big movie stars are Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Clark Gable and Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, and Doris Day.

Rob:
1949 brought many incredible talents to the world. This is the year that Meryl Streep was born, as well as Richard Gere and John Belushi. Wolfgang Puck and Andy Kaufman were born, as were Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and the legendary Hank Williams Junior.

Amanda:

But something else happened started that year, something of enormous importance to each and every person in this room. 1949 is, of course, the year that Marge G***y and Dick C***s got married. 

Rob:

We wanted to research and write something for Grandma and Grandpa because doing things like this has always brought us closer – from Grandma writing English papers for me until I was in college, to my many heated email debates with Grandpa, to our discussions about various posts on Amanda’s blog. 

Amanda:

But Grandma reminds us of the importance of looking to the future. Although tonight is about celebrating 60 years of happy memories, we want to recognize that everything we all do today, tomorrow, and in the years to come is rooted in the legacy that Grandpa Dick and Grandma Marge started in 1949.

Rob:
And so, with that in mind, we congratulate you on your 60^th wedding anniversary. We love you very much, and we look forward to sharing many more happy occasions with you!