Oh it was a hectic few weeks right after that, I'll tell you. There were two weddings to plan and one was really thrown together but I guess that sometimes they just have to be done in a hurry. I will say that Carol's parents did show for the wedding and I know that made her feel good. What she didn't know at the time, though I think she did learn this later, was that Buck had gone to them and begged for them to be there. He really put himself out there and said things like they could hate him forever but not to hurt her that way. I don't know if it was the guilt trip he laid on them or maybe they even saw how much he loved her by how much her pain was hurting him but they came. They even bought them some furniture for the new place and if I recall, Carol's mom even sewed the curtains and such for the baby's room.
It was a nice wedding for as little time as there'd been to prepare. Carol wore this real pretty pink dress that she'd worn to prom. With the morning sickness and how early she still was, it didn't even need letting out. I think the group of us got to know Carol more in those couple weeks we planned the wedding than we had in the two years she'd been dating our friend. Maybe she saw that we were the closest to in-laws she was going to get or maybe she finally figured out that we weren't bad people. I know she loved Buck and I know she admired him and knew he was better than his dad ever thought of being but I think she also thought he was better than us too. When we all circled around her to figure out a way to get her married and help Buck make an honest woman of her, I think she saw that maybe we was all better than our circumstances.
Carol and Joanie became thick as thieves. They were near to inseparable. Joanie didn't spend a lot of time at home that summer. She said it was good for her folks to learn to be without her before she headed off to the dorms. She was still there in temple every Saturday morning though. But most of the week days, she was in the city. Sometimes she'd sit beside whatever I was working on and talk to me but most of the time she was over to Emma's. Joanie loved Emma but she was there for Carol. I know Lou was over there a lot too. She seemed to have lost a lot of interest in hanging around a greasy garage all day since becoming a married lady. I missed seeing her around but being married agreed with her and it's not like I never saw her. She spent a good amount of time at Emma's and I'd see her when I went to find my girl. I think she didn't always know what to do with Theresa for a whole day at a time so she'd come on over and have something to do. Theresa was a good kid but Lou was pretty much taking over raising the girl and I think it overwhelmed her a bit. She wouldn't ever say anything and she loved her sister too much to think of doing anything else but taking care of her but I think it took some of the fun out of being a newlywed. Sometimes Joanie would take Theresa for walks and they'd wander by and say hi to me. It was nice and I thought to a time when maybe someday it would be our own little girl or boy she was taking for a walk and buying an ice cream and stopping in to visit me at work. Thoughts like that were scary a little but they were real nice too.
So we got through Buck and Carol's wedding and got them moved into their new place. Then it was time to really get to finishing up preparing for Ike and Annie's wedding. That went nice too. I think for a while there I was almost an expert on weddings which was weird 'cause guys don't normally dwell too much on things like that. At that time I think we cared even less. Just tell us when to show and what to wear and we're fine. We don't care about flowers or music and we couldn't care at all about what the cake looks like as long as we get to eat it. I know women hate it when we say stuff like this but it's true. Little boys don't grow up thinking about their weddings. They don't even really think about being married or having kids. We think about being firemen or cowboys or baseball players. When we get older we realize that a job is only part of your day and it's nice to not be alone the rest of it but we still don't care about the pomp and ceremony of any of it. I think every guy I know would just as soon have a city hall wedding as any great big fancy thing with flowers and violins and whatever else people think is so damned necessary. What we care about at the time is that the wedding is whatever our bride wants it to be so that she'll be happy. You know the old adage, "Happy wife, happy life"? Well, that starts on the very first day that she becomes your wife. I am not kidding about that either. Those are words to live by if ever there were any.
It was a nice wedding. Things weren't as lavish then as they get now. Seems these days everyone likes to think they are freaking Princess Grace. Everyone needs ice sculptures of swans and fountains in the architecture that cakes have become. It's crazy I tell you. I don't think I ever saw Ike so happy and Annie was just beaming. Bill brought Mary Lou but I think it was their last hurrah. I don't know what it was but that just never seemed to completely take between the two of them. I think Mary Lou might've been looking for a ring but Bill was looking at college. His folks had been saving and his dad was just busting his buttons that Bill was going to be the first in the family to go to college. He was heading off to State soon. Joanie kept joking and calling him the enemy but it was lighthearted. Well, it was then but I was a little scared of the two of them meeting up the week of the Michigan-Michigan State game. I know Wolverines don't hate Spartans like they do Buckeyes but it's still a pretty big rivalry. It's funny about the Michigan-Ohio State thing. Ohio won that damned war, you know and they still treat us like they lost and are holding a grudge. Until Joanie I didn't even know there had been a war but there had been-over Toledo of all places. They wanted another port on the lakes and they won. We got the U.P. out of the deal so you'll never convince me we truly lost anything but they got what they wanted so why they still hate us here, I don't know but we spend a lot of time hating them right back.
The next morning I woke up next to Joanie. I loved that feeling of waking up next to her all snuggled against me. She would always act a little silly in the mornings once she woke up; trying to fix her hair and saying her breath must be awful. I thought she was beautiful and I loved the mornings that I woke up first and got to just look at her sleeping next to me. She was wearing one of my t-shirts and her hair was just laying all over around her head. She was just so peaceful. Of course, when she was most peaceful is when I couldn't help myself from kissing her. She stirred and frowned at me a little and tried to turn her head away. I turned her head back to face me and kissed her again.
"Good morning beautiful," I said.
"Ugh, hardly," she said back.
She got up and stretched. There wasn't anything at all under that shirt of mine except her body and the light coming in my window showed me every curve and detail of that body. Her hair may have been a mess and she was distracted by trying to get together her things to take a shower and get her face ready for the day but I think those were the kind of moments that I loved her most. She was so unaware of how beautiful she was to me. There was no effort to be what anyone, or really everyone, expected her to be. She was just in that moment and just being and she was lovely. I went to her and pulled her to me.
"James," she protested, "I'm a fright right now."
"No," I told her, "You are gorgeous right now and I have to kiss you."
I did kiss her and she just rolled her eyes at me. Women just don't get it sometimes. Sure we love to see them in pretty dresses with their hair and make-up all done but when a man really loves a woman; she is just as beautiful to him in jeans and a t-shirt, or just the t-shirt, with their hair a mess and no make-up at all. Maybe they need all that other stuff to get our attention but once they have it, they really don't have to work that hard to keep it. It was a few years later before the song came out but Percy Sledge got it just right. We will do damned near anything for a woman we love and not think twice about it. That's just the way it is. Joanie tried to explain it to me when she was taking a Sociology class but I didn't get it entirely but it goes way back to something we developed when humans were still living in caves or something.
She went to take her shower and I got some coffee started. I was trying to keep every moment because I knew it was almost time for her to head to Ann Arbor. I knew I could visit her there and I would and I knew she could come to see me. They had a curfew but nothing against going home for a weekend or even for a night if you lived close enough. They just wouldn't have to know that she wasn't going home. But I also knew she'd be busy with her studies and the last thing I wanted was to be a distraction from those. She had worked too hard to get where she was and I didn't want to do anything to mess up her plans. All the same I was still scared. There'd be a lot more guys there at school and not all of them would be the same kind of guys who passed her over in high school. A lot of them would respect her being so smart and maybe even be attracted to that. Besides, they'd be able to live in her world like I never could.
So I leaned against the counter in the kitchen part of my room and sipped my coffee listening to her humming "Beyond the Sea" and trying to keep my fears from turning my stomach over any more than it already was. I couldn't let her see the dread I was feeling. I knew it was getting hard on her too. She kept talking about how much we'd see each other still but I think she was getting to like being at my place. It was almost like we was married and I think she liked playing house quite a bit. I knew she was nervous too. U of M is a big place so even the kids she knew from high school who were going there would probably be hard to find and she wouldn't meet her roommate until she got there and that scared her a lot. She really tried to be confident about things like that and she had a good enough sense about people that she should have been more confident but she was as scared as the rest of us. The last thing she needed was me fretting about her going away. And I didn't want to put pressure on her. We had a good summer together and I know we had said some stuff about being together forever and that sure was what I wanted. All that said though, if she found some guy at school who was a better fit for her, someone with a real future, maybe even someone Bubbe Goldman would approve of, I wouldn't stop her. It would hurt like hell but she didn't really owe me nothing. I knew if I brought it up to her, she'd protest and make promises she might not be able to keep. That would just be wrong.
Joanie came out of the bathroom all dressed and ready for her day and I pasted on a smile for her so she wouldn't know how scared I was. She was getting ready to head for home to spend some time with her folks before she had to go. I knew she had packing to do as well.
"I guess I'm about ready," she said and then turned to her bag she had that she carried her things in when she stayed. I thought she was just putting things away but she turned back to me and held something out to me.
"What's this?" I asked like I wasn't capable of looking myself.
"Just something to help decorate this place," she said, "The subject could be prettier but it's still better than the nothing you have on the walls right now.
I looked and it was her senior picture all framed and I guess ready for the wall though I usually just sat it on an end table. It made me feel not so crazy when I was alone in my place and talking to her.
"No," I said, "The subject couldn't be prettier."
She blushed but smiled like women do when you tell them they're pretty, even when they don't believe you. It's sort of a smile that says the guy's being sweet even if he's lying through his teeth. Not that I was lying or anything but I know she thought so. I was never able to fully convince her that she was beautiful but I tried.
I walked her downstairs and to her car. I kissed her and told her I loved her and to drive safe and call me when she got home. I know she thought I was silly sometimes but hearing her voice and knowing she was safe meant the world to me.
I leaned into the window to kiss her again.
"I'll see you next weekend," I said, "Mary Markley, right?"
"Yeah," she said and I could see the fear creep in again. "I'll meet you out front."
"I'll be there," I told her hoping that would help and it seemed to a little bit.
I watched for a bit as she drove off.
"Was that Joanie driving off?" I heard from behind me and nearly jumped out of my shoes I was so startled. It was Al.
"Yeah," I said, "It was. She's heading home to pack for school."
Al put a hand on my shoulder and was quiet for a bit.
"Say," he said, "How's about you and me head over to the Corner and snag us some bleacher seats and grab a couple of dogs and beers?"
I know he was just trying to get my mind off of Joanie and he didn't care one wit for the Tigers but he did like going to the Corner. It was a nice ball yard. I told him I had to wait for Joanie's call before I could leave but it was early yet so we had plenty of time.
After Joanie called and I knew she was home safe and sound, me and Al headed out to the game. It was a good afternoon and it did help take my mind off my worries for a little bit. Bunning was on the mound and got the win against Cleveland. Cash had a great day at the plate but we never expected anything else from him. It was good hanging out with Al, just us two bachelors. But I'll tell you, I'd rather have been one of the married guys and been heading home to my Joanie.
Alright...I know you all already know about the Corner and Bunning and Cash...Um, University of Michigan has a huge in-state rivalry with Michigan State University but an even bigger one with Ohio State University (the Buckeyes). The hatred between Michigan and Ohio does indeed date back to the war for Toledo. They did win and we did get the upper penninsula out of the deal. Good trade I think and U.P. has brought in more revenue through tourism than Toledo has for Ohio. Mary Markley is a residence hall at U of M and it's still primarily for first year students although it is co-ed now, it was finished in 1959 and was a girls only dorm at that time. I am going on a little bit of supposition about curfew rules for that time but I know they did have them...at least for the girls, I don't know about the boys. I had a number of friends who lived in Markley...it was a pretty cool place for a dorm.-J