An Old Pal's Wedding in Small-Town Iowa

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

(6:50am) The next morning in Iowa brought a stark change from the gray skies of Friday. Saturday was shining bright from one end of the horizon to the other. The wind was bitterly cold and rocked the travel trailer. A frosty dew had settled over the cornfields. Breakfast consisted of Dad’s almost-favorite fair. He had made a quick run to a nearby convenience mart for several gallons of cold milk and three boxes of mini chocolate and powdered sugar donuts. And Mom had already prepared a plate of egg cups along with a platter of crispy bacon. And there were several cartons of good cold juice.

But they soon prepared to go out into the village to look around the shops. The first stop was the Amana Furniture Store. There, they watched students and furniture craftsmen, work pieces of wood. And there were beautiful cabinets, beds, and such. There were beautiful handmade boxes of inlaid wood. One pattern in particular, was of a flower with the petals dyed a shade of pale pink. And as one passed his hand across the lid, he could not tell where one piece of wood stopped and the other began. It was smoothed perfectly. There was also a room of grandfather clocks and another of cuckoo clocks, which Frances and Linnea found particularly fascinating. In another room sat several stalls of unused scraps of wood for one to three dollars apiece. Joe, Frances, and Linnea were all keen on purchasing a piece. However, they were told to wait. Next to the darkened corner of wood bins was a small quiet room where the clock repairmen worked. There was a desk there with a lamp by the window and many boxes of clock workings. What a peaceful life they must lead, Collette thought. Collette’s favorite piece, however, was a particular gliding rocker which she decided was the most comfortable drowsy seat in which she had ever sat.

Meanwhile, Carrie and Rose had opted to stay in the travel trailer and prepare for the festivities. And while they crimped, powdered, and the like, Mom purchased a piece of lace for the back of the recliner in the living room, a cheeseball mix for the candle party that Tuesday night, and Collette found a package of soup mix from the Amana General Store, for Ivy. OLeif helped Linnea pick out to two rocks from another shop. And Dad eyed the trays of fudge coming away with several pounds to share that evening – one box of chocolate and another of Heath. The boys rummaged through a great bin of discarded wood pieces at the broom store (where Mom and Dad had purchased their first “thing” together, a handmade broom) – knobs, balls, stoppers, and such (likely shipped over from the furniture store) for 50 cents apiece. Frances decided on two balls to use as grenades, as did Joe, but not to use as grenades.

Upon arriving back at the camper there was a quick flurry of activity as everyone slipped into their wedding regalia. Dad and OLeif were in suits, Mom wore a country style dress of black and white and rosebuds. Collette, Carrie, and Rose all wore black skirts – Collette with a light shell pink sweater, a long black lace shawl around her neck, and black boots, Carrie with a black top, angora rabbit tail shawl (the one Elizabeth had given her for her eighteenth birthday), and black boots.

“You can wear your hair down, Collette,” Carrie had informed her as she did Collette’s make-up. “Because I’m putting mine up in a ponytail.”

And she did put it in her high ponytail. Rose wore a black top and a pair of Mom’s dainty black shoes. Carrie crimped her hair in one big mass. And the boys wore black pants and collared shirts while Linnea wore a powder blue dress with blossoms, white tights, and black buckled shoes, with her hair in a ponytail (which rarely stayed nicely kept for longer than an hour).

And so, thus arrayed, they marched out to the van in a blast of icy wind, to Iowa City. Of course, upon arriving, they could scarcely tell where the city started and left off. There were no large buildings – more a suburb really. But for lunch they all traipsed into a convenience mart where A&W was partnered with Subway, much to Carrie’s embarrassment.

But there was no need for such embarrassment, for as they munched on their bacon cheeseburgers, fries, and sodas (minus Carrie who ordered a spinach salad with chicken, and Rose who took Wisconsin cheese curds), everyone else between the two restaurants had smashed themselves over in the A&W side to watch the football game on the television anchored high on the wall. No one even noticed the nine of them spread out across two tables in their fancy clothes.

And within the next hour, they had finished their late lunch and had piled once again into the green slug. They drove over to a park and sat for twenty minutes until it was 3:10 and time to be arriving. Collette was excited to get to the little white church. It had been so long since they had seen the Lord-Welches, nearly three years. And here was Colorado getting himself married already. Wasn’t is just yesterday that he and Carrie were prepared to go trick-or-treat in July?

The little Baptist church was situated in a small quiet neighborhood. As they drove up, the front steps were lined with potted flowers in a deep purple color, and tied with silver ribbons. And Dad soon parked.

Then they were there, half-way up the stairs. There was no time to think, for suddenly there they were – all of them. Mr. and Mrs. Lord-Welches giving Mom and Dad hugs. Gauti! Good old Gauti was there, passing out high fives, jokes, and hugs. Loraine and their daughter, Meadow… Sean, Pearl, Melissa, and Thursday were in there with their husbands and Melissa’s three daughters, and Thursday’s new son, Carter. And there was the man himself – Colorado – that same old grin, all decked out in a white tux. He gave Carrie a hug as she congratulated him and shook Joe’s hand with a “Hey, buddy!” What a welcome! The Lord-Welches were always like coming home to family.

“Are you ready for this?” Collette heard someone ask behind her, as they walked to the sanctuary.

“Yes,” Colorado sighed, “I am.”

The ceremony was brief, in fact. But there was something simple and down-to-earth about it, even if Carrie’s palms were clammy throughout the whole. Carrie always became nervous at weddings.

“I almost threw up before I walked down the aisle at your wedding,” she would often tell Collette.

But despite that minor distraction, the ceremony began with a piano and concluded with piano and organ. The four bridesmaids – Lacey’s best friend (slim, slender, white-skinned, and red-haired), two sisters (one being married and expecting), and Pearl – were dressed in lavender and carried small bouquets of purple flowers. And except for Sean’s nose bleeding during the end, all was lovely. But Lacey was very nervous, quite obviously. She met her white-tuxed groom a little tremblingly, but managed to come through the ceremony quite dandy. And goofy Gauti, when pulling out the rings from his jacket pocket, commenced to pull out odds and ends before retrieving the second ring from within the folds. He always brought laughter. And then that was that – they were married. They both came back down the aisle to greet their guests as the piano played along. It was their first interaction with Lacey (though they had seen her from afar at Colorado’s football game those three years ago – she had been a cheerleader), and she was quite cute in her white ball gown and veil, long dark curled hair… Collette wondered if they would get to know her as they had Loraine.

But outside, there was a ten minute wait or so as little blowing bubble cylinders were dispensed to the shivering crowd in the cold early evening sunset. And then they appeared as the bubbles were furiously blown. Most of Carrie’s ended up blowing back in Collette’s face. And the wedding party piled into the white limo waiting at the end of the steps. And so it was on to the party.

Meanwhile, back in the present week, Mom had prepared all Tuesday morning to host a candle party for Mrs. Tecumseh. And her menu was delightful as always: pumpkin bread (prepared by Carrie), chocolate pound cake, Mom’s peanut and candy corn mix (in her new candy-corn shaped and painted bowl), an orange-cranberry cheese ball which she mixed herself, rolled in graham crackers and served with graham crackers, hot spiced cider, hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon (in a new cinnamon sifter), and cold cranberry apple drink. Mom was Mrs. Hospitality. There was a good handful of ladies attending, including Lady Plum who had just returned from a week convention for eye-ball painters (whatever that scientific name might be).