I had purchased a second-hand suit and she wore a simple dress (she rarely wears dresses). We had arranged a few weeks before to go down to the Elyria City Offices for our marriage certificate and managed to get up and around to go to the mayor’s office. Ironically getting married by the mayor had its unique appeal, few people did it, we managed to keep our ceremony private, and it gives it the old-time feel of years gone past.

A snowstorm had just managed to roll into town the wind was piercing through our clothes, but we persevered in the journey. I make it seem like it was far, but it was a 5-minute drive. Mayor Davis of Vermilion did the honors. The one thing we didn’t know beforehand is that the mayor was blind as a bat. We manage to get to the office and his secretary shows us in, it seems the mayor hadn’t done too many weddings.

He put on glasses that were about half an inch thick and read the ceremony from preprinted pages. While I’m sure most mayors would read from a book, most books don’t have lettering that was almost an inch in height. At the end of the ceremony we kissed, paid our fee to the mayor, and thanked him for his time.

We went over to my parents to announce that we were official and then off to her parents to do the same. Some of our friends thought she was pregnant, but those are the type of rumors that generate when you grow up in a small town. I was 22 years old and she was 19 so by modern standards we were both married young. We were married happily though.

I did manage to carry her across the threshold of the door. That night we left on a piss-poor honeymoon. I was solely to blame, but we were broke and managed the best we could.

Every day of my life I would do this again.