Mom & Dad

Yesterday would have been my parents' 68th wedding anniversary - they were married in a double wedding ceremony in Pocomoke City, Maryland  by the Reverend John Ditto.  The other couple married were Mom's sister, Ruth, and Earle Gordon; they divorced after 9 years.  It seems funny that an Oklahoma/Kansas farm boy and the daughter of a waterman of Chincoteague would meet and marry.  Dad joined the US Navy in 1939 to become a bomber pilot.  Poor man - he washed out of the program because he had no depth perception.  So he was sent to the Ford Company and became an expert on airplane engines, and went to sea on an aircraft carrier.
  Mom was born and raised on Chincoteague Island.  Her father was a dual citizen of Sweden and the United States. But her maternal line goes back to the first land patents on the island, and the Whealton family.  Having been on, or around, the island for more than 300 years, she was related to almost every "old timer" family there in Accomac County, and along the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland.  Pop-pop's Swedish relatives lived in New York City, and were a backbone of the Fulton Fish Market.  Mom-mom was a true Chincoteaguer, and had the Whealtons' fiery temper.
  Mom and Dad met at NAS Chincoteague, over on the mainland.  Mom was working as a cashier in the base's Ship's Store, and, of course, Dad was a customer, posted to the base.  At that time, he was being endoctrinated in radar systems, having just returned from a stint in the Caribbean.  Mom thought he was a dashing Puerto Rican, with his deep tan, black hair and moustache, light green eyes, and the way he could speak a few Spanish phrases.  Dad thought Mom was extremely straight-forward, to the point, and had a great sense of humor.
  After a little over a year of wooing, Dad proposed and Mom accepted - after he had to confess one thing.  Mom had told him during their second date that she would never marry a man who was younger than she was.  Dad found out how old she was, and added two years on top of that when she asked his age.  Proposal day had him confess that he was actually two years younger than Mom - she laughed, and then accepted his proposal.  Their honeymoon was in Baltimore, Maryland.
   Mom's sister, meanwhile, had accepted the proposal of her boyfriend, Earle Gordon; and so the double wedding in Pocomoke City took place.  They were married in 1948; Dad died in 1980; and Mom never remarried. She passed away in 2001.
      This photo was taken by my Aunt Ruth, about a months before the weddings - her fiance, Earle Gordon, is toward the front of the photo.  Mom and Dad are in the back, Dad at the tiller, and Mom is wearing her favorite jacket, made of fringed buckskin.  She always loved ponies, horses, and the West.