True story.
The year was a tough one. I was pregnant with my fourth child, and both my man and I were recently unemployed. He was doing odd jobs, but it still wasn't enough to keep us all alive.
We'd each been married before, and knew it wasn't that piece of paper that made a marriage. It was love. Love like ours.
We bit the bullett and applied for ADC (Aid to Dependent Children) and Welfare, just so we could keep the house and food on the table until we got better work.
No problem qualifying, BUT...... child support enforcement services would take money out of my man's meager checks and give it to me, minus their cut. BUT WE LIVE TOGETHER! WE'RE A FAMILY! Didn't matter.
So......
In order to get some temporary help, we had to give the government part of our income!
OK, so we got married. Just a little civil ceremony with us and the judge. No big deal. But my parents threw us a little party and we got all those cool gifts couples get. My grandma gave me an afghan she'd made that I now deserved because my husband had "made an honest woman" of me. We had friends and family around and all wore smiles. We kissed and took our cake home.
It was a busy day, and late by the time the kids finally settled into bed, so we decided to have the cake for breakfast and drifted off to sleep ourselves.
Morning came and what do I see? A partially eaten wedding cake, THAT'S what! Hell, it's no good now! I threw open the front door and heaved it off the porch, over the bushes into the yard.
Jimmy from next door came over for coffee and was absolutely delighted at the new bird food in the yard. He couldn't wait to come in and hear the story......... I tell ya he was grinning from ear to ear! He found his buddy drinking coffee and looking a little dejected.
Seems I talk in my sleep, so when my groom woke up hungry in the middle of the night and asked if I minded if he had some cake, I bid him go ahead. But I woke up to a cake which we could not eat together as a couple. It was stolen from me, that little tradition, and I was pissed off!
Jimmy loved it, but told me I really needed to get Glen a new cake.
He was right, and I did. But that was 1987, and Jimmy talks about our wedded lunacy to this very day! Funny how the actual getting married threw me an emotional curve; I mean, I was a mess for a little while. Guess I felt trapped or something.
Hell, we'd lived together since the spring of 1984. But now it was different somehow, and it bothered me. All was merely emotional adjustment, and we are still happily together.
Oh, did I mention it is also our anniversary tradition to throw cake in the yard? The birds LOVE it!
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Comments: 18
quite another when the gate closes ...
I woke up married one morning........
Does it seem strange that our laws demand a man and woman be married to receive certain government services or protections yet will not allow same sex marriage which would provide those same services and protections?
Thanks for enjoying this with me, all.
Carl, yes it is ludicrous!