Who could believe it

1961, September: two youngsters (he is 22 and she is 19) get married. Both of them are still in college; not even the SAME college. He is entering his Senior Year and she is entering her Sophomore year. Their parents aren't wild about the marriage, but very supportive. Just think about the year. It was a time of complete innocence for them. None of their friends were married. They had a honeymoon, of sorts. After the ceremony on Saturday, they drove on Sunday from Boston to Philadelphia in order to be on time for the Monday start of the college year. Her college was Bryn Mawr and the saying went, "Only our failures get married." The station wagon (rented of course) was loaded with clothing, gifts, pots and pans, dishes, sheets, all the things a young couple needed to set up home. They rented an apartment in a building that was once a private home and had a realtor's office on the ground floor. To get to the upstairs apartment, you had to walk up a metal fire escape in the back parking lot. It was "cool, man." All their friends came for dinners. They ate chicken and rice A LOT that year. They walked to classes.

50 years later, they get a call from their sons: "Mom, Dad, it is TIME TO PARTY!" All the years have flown by, just as you think. Both graduated from college, both went to graduate schools and both started out as teachers in a small country day school. She graduated from college having had two sons, so now the family was complete. They moved into a small ranch house in a tiny town, Unionville, with a population of about 300. Life was rural and pleasant and easy. All that changed in 1968, when they decided to have an adventure and move for ONE YEAR only to The Netherlands where he would teach English to Grades 7 and 8 and start a theater program in The American School of the International Schools of the Hague (TASOTIS). They sold their house, packed up the furniture, and took the SS Rotterdam from New York City to Rotterdam Harbor. The year turned into 39 years before they knew it. The fun had begun.