Parental Hurdles Spark Creativity

Terry, A Rendezvous to Remember, Ch 21, Landmines on the Road to Silverton, December 2, 1964, Glendale, Arizona:

Terry and Ann, Silverton, March 12, 1964

No question: Annie’s parents were opposed to our getting married. Here’s how we wound up with a mountain wedding:

“They’re hoping that if we postpone it, I’ll come to my senses and call it off,” she said. “But I’m stymied, Ter. No church. No minister. What now? Checkmate?”

“Maybe not.” I pulled out Allen Nossaman’s letter. “Listen to this: ‘Why in the hell don’t you two get married in Silverton? Jim Price says he’d be happy to officiate.’”

A Mountain Wedding? Of course!

“We stared at each other, eyes wide, as if we’d witnessed a miracle. To Annie’s folks, our plan to get married in the desert—in the shadow of a Saguaro rather than a cross—was akin to blasphemy. Her mom had told her, ‘Annie, you simply have to have it in a church. It’s not a camp-out. It’s a wedding. It’s holy matrimony—a marriage before God.’”

“Not only was Jim Price one of our Silverton gang, he was an ordained minister, with a church. And it would be in the town we loved. ‘Why not?’ I said. “Why the hell not?’

“Annie nodded. ‘Let’s do it.'”

Rodeo Holiday—Perfect Day for a Wedding!

“Back at Annie’s apartment, we studied her school calendar as if it were a newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll. Rodeo Holiday, March 11-14, was the only break between Christmas and the end of the school year. That was it.

“I fired off a letter to Allen. ‘You’re on. We’ve postponed the wedding. We’ll do it in Silverton, probably the weekend of March 11-14.’”

And that’s how we wound up with a mountain wedding on a snowy weekend in March.