Today would have been my parents Nelson and Mary's 82nd wedding anniversary if they were still around today. They got married in 1940 at a farm in Geneva, Illinois owned by John Tallman, who I believe was my Grandmother Hoyt's brother-in-law. My mother was not too crazy about getting married at that place, which she condescendingly referred to as that old farmhouse. I mentioned this to my Uncle Jack, my father's brother, when I was visiting him in San Diego a few years ago, and he got pretty defensive about it all, after almost 80 years no less. Never too late to stir up a dispute between in-laws, I guess. In any case, you can see my parents walking out of that farmhouse after the wedding ceremony in the photograph on the left.
Another thing someone did that my mother was not crazy about was put up a billboard advertising the wedding. I am not sure if it was just on the property or the main highway, since that farm was long gone by the time I came around. My sister Susan, however, who was born two years later, remembered staying at that farm and going with Uncle John to say good night to the cows each evening. I myself missed out on that and a lot of other things, too, but why be bitter? At least too bitter. In any case, in addition to the farm, Uncle John was a plumber, and had his plumbing shop in what later became the Mill Race Inn in Geneva, which is no longer operating but where Susan, her husband George, my mother and father and I had New Year's Eve dinner during a blizzard back in the 1970s. As I recall, we were the only guests who were able to get through to the place, and thus had very attentive service. So many family memories thanks to photographs. The best invention ever.
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