I GET MARRIED

On June 19^th, 1971 "It's Too Late" by Carole King peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart and stayed there for five weeks. It was too late for me: I walked down the aisle for a lifetime journey as a married man.

Sitting together the planning for the wedding was occurring every morning on the Long Island Rail Road, every detail laid out, every seat assigned and meal planned for the reception. Since TLW (The Little Woman) and I had large families, it was a lot to think about. I mean who wasn’t talking to who, placing them where they would have a good time, talk to someone they like for the moment and before they made new enemies once again. Typical dysfunction you find at every old time wedding.

The invitations were sent out, and I felt maybe I better invite my bosses and friends from the company along with TLW’s Mobil Oil bosses and friends. I didn’t think my company would even think to show up. But I felt if I didn’t it would not look good, and frankly, I wanted them to come.

While everything was planned and the invites were in the mail, TLW comes up to the office one day after work at the invitation of my company. A party had been planned in the boss’s office along with cake, Champaign and gift. It was a very special moment as they honored us. Everyone attended, crowding into the Chairman’s private office. There was even levity about, as one of the account executives was accused of being a ten minute man, which TLW picked up on and laughed at, to this day!

One night during the week, the phone rings at my folk's home and it is TLW.

TLW: “Guess who is coming to the wedding!”

Me: “Me?”

TLW: “No”

Me: “You?”

TLW: “No silly, Larry, your boss!”

The Chairman was coming to my wedding? Me? He was coming all the way out from his home in Valley Stream to not only the reception, but the church as well! How special was that? Not only that, but TLW’s boss was coming too, we both were truly honored.

The morning of the wedding, after a night of revelry and good times, good food and good booze, I was oversleeping! Yes, Mom, Dad and the four sisters of the covenant that lived in the house at one time or another were already gone for the church.

Out cold I hear a knocking at the window of my bedroom. A tap that was becoming a frantic rapping, it was my best man Phil coming for me! Slowly I climb out of my sleep and bed for the last time as a free man. We get dressed and go down to Dad’s bar in the recreation room and have one last drink before we head to the church, on my empty stomach! The closer we got to the church, the more my head felt the booze. Entering the church, we are greeted by people and we head to the back of the altar to await the end of

me. Suddenly the music starts, and we go out on the altar and wait for the bridal procession. They all come down the aisle, then… here comes the bride, and the closer she got on her father’s arm, the more she started looking like her father!

The ceremony, a Mass was all a blur, and few details remain in my mind except our sitting and standing and kneeling and the exchange of rings, and of course, my best man Phil, a Jew, getting startled when the priest came up to him with the host and all he could do was stick out his tongue. This was what I thought was the beginning of the end of the world, a Jew receiving communion, surely all the columns of Rome and the Vatican were tumbling down.

I do remember the music I selected for our exit from the church, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, his ninth and last symphony. I left that church a very happy man, she was absolutely beautiful, and maybe stunning is a more appropriate word. Funny, I was in love with her kindness, her sweet disposition, intelligence  and good sense, and left admiring her beauty that day too!