Marriage and Mashed Potatoes

Mr. and Mrs. J. L.  

We had the honor of witnessing these two people take their solemn vows last night.  The Mrs. I don't know all that well yet.  But in the next 50 or so years, I look forward to her presence in our extended family.

The Mr. I've known since he was a wet-behind-the-ears kid at the ripe old age of say... eleven.  He was the oldest of four.  The only son.  And he carried on family tradition of having opinions (some of them strong I might add).  It has gotten him places in life already.  He's got a business.  A lot of friends.  A super sense of humor.  A great personality.  And opinions.  I might add that I like him a lot.

He blended in with his family as a kid for me until a wedding.  This wedding took place just a few months before ours.  We happened to be sharing a table with him and his grandparents and a few others I don't remember.  And he muttered.  And complained.  And whined.  He was about 13 at the time.  You see the food line wasn't moving fast enough.  It was boring sitting at the table.  And a litany of other travesties that he felt in his little heart just wasn't right.

Finally we get our turn for the wedding feast.  I personally thought it was lovely in every way.  Mass quantities of food at events such as these are hard to make perfect.  So we take our full plates back to the table.  And the good looking early teen is still muttering across the table.  Finally I ask, "what's the matter?".  There's no potatoes!  What?  There's a lot of choices!  We don't even need potatoes, do we?  "Yes" he emphatically responded, "You always have potatoes".

So I glance at the Chairman and he looks at me and we both said without speaking that we better have potatoes on the buffet table when we marry three months hence.  And we did.

I remember all this as I walk up to the buffet table last night.  Hmmm.  Has anything changed?  I wonder if he still wanted potatoes for his own wedding.  And there they were!  A big, steaming pan of potatoes.  And boy were they good.

We wish them many, many happy days ahead.  And I sure hope they got a very good potato peeler in the gift pile.

the original four...

* Special thanks to A. for letting me snag these photos.