The day came of Dad's wedding came. It was scheduled to take place at 6pm in Taos, NM. Dad and Gred were going to get up there early so they could get a marriage license that day. They were going to eat dinner with the wedding party and have the ceremony at the time-share they had bought into with a group of other people. Afterward, they were going to have a Crazy Cajan feast for the reception.
Loyd and I had to drive Gred's car up to Taos. We were going to stop at Grandma Bend's along the way. I originally wanted to go to Portales to see Dr. R from the ENMU Theatre Department. Dad didn't want me to do that, saying it would take us two hours out of the way and make us late for the wedding. I argued that it was only 20 minutes out of the way. Dad started getting angry. At any rate, I decided to go along with Dad's wishes since it was his wedding day.
Loyd and I saw Grandma Bend in Ft. Sumner. She didn't say anything about the wedding. As it turned out, she was very angry at Dad for leaving Mom and declared that the only way she could deal with it was by considering him dead. Even though Mom figured out how to continue with life after being abandoned, Grandma Bend never did. In fact, Grandma Bend didn't see my father again until 2007 when they were at my wedding. My understanding was that they were civil toward each other, but she didn't talk much to him. They never saw each other again after that.
We didn't have any real problems the rest of the way to Taos, but we realized when we were on a state highway that we had forgotten to fill up with gas in Ft. Sumner and we were running VERY low. Fortunately, we came across a gas station just in time.
We showed up in plenty of time and checked into the motel. We then went over to the time-share. The wedding was held outdoors and was rather informal. Several of the other people on the time-share had gathered. I remember seeing some others just arriving a little bit after the wedding had started. The ceremony was rather brief. At the time, I had a slight case of the sniffles that I was dealing with. After it was over, everyone went over to the kitchen to eat.
Loyd and I talked to several of the other people in the time-share during dinner. One of them asked me why I was getting all emotional during the ceremony. I had to explain that I had a slight cold. That was embarrassing. I wondered how many other people thought I was getting a little choked up when my Dad was getting married. I mean, I wasn't that happy for him, but I had nothing against Gred. They seemed to truly love each other and belonged together. I guess the thing that bothered me was that, in college, I had anticipated that I would get married by the time I was 25 years old and it didn't happen. It seemed like Dad didn't have to try real hard to find someone to marry him.
One thing I should point out was that Gred's son Tad was not at the wedding. At first, he didn't care much for Dad, but Dad had tried to treat him like a son. (He was sort of the ideal son he never had. Tad was a football player in high school and went on to have a very successful career, two things I never accomplished.) Gred said she didn't have a problem with Tad not attending the wedding and never held it against him. However, years later, Tad got married in a destination wedding and Gred was unable to attend, simply because she and Dad could not afford it, which he knew. (Gred got to come to my wedding.)
Loyd and I slept at the motel. I don't remember going out and doing anything that night. I do remember that Taos' art house movie theatre was showing "The Icicle Thief," which we had shown several months earlier at the Mayan Theatre, but we didn't go see a movie.
The next morning, I got on the Greyhound bus from Taos to Denver. The bus was probably about 50% full when I got on. There was this bald-headed woman about my age sitting in the seats behind me. The bus stopped in Pueblo to pick up more passengers. I left my jacket in my seat and went to the bathroom on the bus. When I got back. A woman and her child were sitting in my seat. I told her that I had been sitting there, but she said there were no more seats together. I asked the bald woman if I could sit next to her. She didn't mind. We talked for a little bit, but my internal awkwardness took over and I couldn't think of anything else to converse with her (without asking her about her bald head). We stopped in Colorado Springs. The bus driver came back to the middle of the bus and opened up the hatch in the ceiling. I commented that I thought he was going to make us leave through the hatch. The bald woman said the same though occurred to her as well.
We made it back to Denver. It was still daylight outside, so I didn't have to worry much about waiting for a bus to take me home. Compared to my last few trips on Greyhound, it was pretty uneventful.
Meanwhile, Dad is still married to Gred. That was more than 24 years ago. Three more years, and he'll have been married to her longer than he was to my Mom.
Tad got divorced from his wife a year ago. Theirs lasted about 15 years.
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