Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Wedding Crasher

 I know this post and the next one aren't about Leona, but since today is the 81st anniversary of this wedding story, I'm posting it now.


Florence Davis Callaway was a younger sister to Mable Davis Butler, Lou's mother.  Lou had a copy of Florence's personal history, and I've shared her account of sheep shearing previously.  Florence's history is an entertaining read, and includes the following memory that is too good to leave unpublished!  We pick up the story after Evan and Florence were engaged, and Florence had returned to her family's ranch to make final preparations for their wedding on October 25, 1930.

Mary Florence Davis and Evan Callaway

Time flew by, and I wanted to spend a week at home with Mother and Dad.  Elma, my good friend, and now my sister in law, and her sister helped me plan the wedding, which I wanted at home.  They were so good to plan with.  Minnie made angel food cakes for the dinner, and Elma, Mother and I planned the dinner.  We planned to have the wedding at 11:30 as the Callaway family planned to come at 11:00 a.m.  They did, but the groom and his party did not arrive.  Time passed and everyone became worried, me included.   The boys began to tease me that the groom stood me up.  The folks assured us that they left soon after they did.  We waited, and at 12:00 we knew something had happened.  No phone, no way to get in touch with them, but to wait.  Sometime after that, as everyone was watching the hill where they would show, someone said, “Here they come!”   As the car came close enough to recognize, I said, “That is not Tag’s car!”  My brothers, Johnnie and Richard, grabbed me and shut me up in the garage, for they said the groom should never see the bride before the wedding.  I was FIT TO BE TIED and Mother or Elma let me out.  When they arrived they were really tozzled up, but looked good to me.  We learned they had an accident just out of Ordway.  It seemed they had a terrible rain and the roads were so cut up with beet haulers, that Evan got in their ruts, lost control of the car, and it rolled over twice and hit a telephone post.  The Elders were thrown clear, but the back seat landed on Zelna.  Elder Holland’s arm was cut, but not too badly.  They were all shaken up.  They had been able to right the car and have it pulled into Ordway and rented a car and came on in.

Not exactly a promising start!

Mother decided to have the dinner first as it was past ready and all would be better to get settled.  They said if they hadn’t had the preacher along they wouldn’t have been so lucky.  I was so upset; I hardly remember much about the dinner except Dad Callaway asked Elder Holland how tight he tied the wedding knot.  Elder Holland said, “I only tie the strings and it is up to them how tight they pull the strings.”  That was a very good answer.  I don’t remember now who was at the dinner or wedding, but it was a big dinner and a house full.

We had rented a little house off Fourth Street on Fountain, and we were real happy to be let out.   Tired, Evan sleepy because he had to work double days to get two days off.  We had put all our things we got at the shower and moved everything we had before I left for the ranch.   Well, everything was not as we had thought!  Zelna and Alta had gotten in and mixed things up just a bit to let us know someone had been there, and sewed up my gown and his pajamas, but good.  Well, I got mine unsewed, but he got disgusted and said he didn’t need them anyway.  We soon crawled into bed.

The next morning he had to rent a truck to pull the car back to Pueblo.  So he and Tag went after the car.  They were real late getting back as they had to make arrangements to have it repaired, and as you may guess, we started in debt. Well, that’s another story.


Happy 81st Anniversary, 
Aunt Florence and Uncle Evan!

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