36 years ago today--The wildest double wedding I was ever invited to be in

[DFW]

December, 1981. My brother called me up in Boston and asked if I wanted to be best man at his wedding. His girlfriend was from Japan, and was OK with moving to the States. I said sure, and I'd see if my girlfriend from Germany could make it, too. My brother said, "well if you're both going to be there, why not make it a double wedding?"

I said that sounded like a plan (no arrangements to make!), so I called up my girlfriend, who was home in Germany. I said my brother and his girlfriend were getting married in Washington in April, and would she like to come? She said, of course, she would. I then told her about his suggestion of the double wedding.

We had been together for over 7 years at that point, so it's not like it would have been a big step for us, we just never had the time. She said, sure, why not? Not exactly the most romantic of proposals, but whatcha gonna do?

So we agreed on Washington as "neutral ground." The DC press called it "the Axis wedding" since the brides were from Germany and Japan. The parents' table at the reception was very peaceful, since no one spoke the languages of the others. "Good evening, nice to see you." "Guten Abend, es freut uns hier zu sein" "こんばんは。ここにいるのはうれしい" Guests, besides the usual suspects from the USA, were from Transylvania, Surinam, Peru, the Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, and of course most of Asia, since my sister-in-law-to-be had risen to be the incoming director for Asia for the World Bank. You'd have thought it was the outside corridor of the UN General assembly.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, as the line goes...........
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[shenmue]

1. Mazel tov

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Congratulations on your amazing 36th Anniversary, my dear DFW!

Love the photo!

And here's to many, many more amazing years!

[TuxedoKat]

3. Great story!

Happy Anniversary to all of you!!!

[FakeNoose]

4. Great story! Congratulations

[DFW]

11. I hope our luck is a little better than Linda McCartney's

My wife has had serious cases of cancer twice, but beat it both times. Paul's first wife was not so lucky.

[Sanity Claws]

5. Are your brother and his wife still together?

I have read the wonderful stories about your long and happy marriage. I hoped your brother's marriage turned out to be as happy.

[DFW]

6. Yes, they're still together.

Last edited Tue Apr 10, 2018, 07:27 PM - Edit history (1)

No pact of any sort was made, but we had two daughters, and they had two sons. Of course, if you see them together, the last thing you assume is that they're related, much less first cousins. These are our two eldest, about 10 years ago:
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Funny footnote: He and my wife's first cousin were together for a few years before he got stationed in Japan. We all met in that cabaret in West Berlin in July, 1974. When I started showing some serious interest (took me all of about 2 minutes), I reminded her that I had a brother along. She said, "no problem, I have a cousin, and she's free." The distance proved too much for them, but my brother met his wife while stationed in Japan, and that was it for him like it had been for me in Berlin. Our wives are good friends, but don't get to see each other much.

[Sanity Claws]

7. Nice family story

Your daughter and nephew are very attractive but you are right -- they do not look like first cousins at all.

[DFW]

8. Both our wives' genes proved to be very dominant.

In my case, quite the blessing!

[elleng]

9. 'The parents' table at the reception was very peaceful, since no one spoke the languages

of the others!'

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

[DFW]

10. There was a lot of gesturing going on.

Kinda funny to watch. My brother is the only one of the four of us with any degree of competence in English, German AND Japanese, and he made himself scarce to avoid being impressed into constant interpreter duty.

[Stuart G]

12. Wonderful story...thanks for sharing...k and r...

[Glorfindel]

13. Thanks for including us in your memories, DFW.

May the next 36 years be even happier!

[DFW]

15. That would put us at age 102

Not likely, but one of my grandfathers made it to that, so don't count us out just yet.

[raven mad]

14. Many, many more years of joy and laughter!

💐

[DFW]

16. If the Great Pumpkin is willing.....

Thanks, we'll try!

[DFW]

17. I'm now in Washington, but we had a nice, crazy anniversary dinner in Germany Monday

We were thinking about Indian, but my wife changed her mind at the last minute, and we reserved at a new French place in downtown Düsseldorf. Traffic is insane there, as is often the case with cities that got big 300 years before automobiles were invented. So, we parked the car at a tram stop about 3 miles from our house and took the tram into town.

We went in early because I needed new shoes. Well, we couldn't find any that fit, but I did get a new suitcase, as my main one I use for intercontinental travel was falling apart. We had to take another tram to get to the restaurant, and they looked at us as if we were insane, wheeling a big suitcase into a small bistro. Facial expressions saying "look, we do box up leftovers, but our portions aren't THAT big." We explained why, and they graciously stored my new suitcase in the kitchen somewhere.

By the time we were done, a huge thunderstorm had broken out. We decided on a taxi, but there were none to be had. So in this noisy downpour, we walked back to the one tram stop in the rain, waited for it to come, and then switched to the other tram line to take us back to the car outside of town, all the while wheeling this immense empty suitcase along, getting more than a few understandably odd stares.

So, we FINALLY made it back home, thoroughly soaked and laughing. I packed my new suitcase and we went to bed.

Yesterday we got up, made breakfast, and my wife drove me to the airport. Delta had some idiot at their security questions desk, who found it highly suspicious that I spoke such good German (he was an Arab whose German was worse than mine), but I flashed my "Platinum-for-life" card, and even he knew that it meant I flew a LOT, so he grudgingly let me proceed to the check-in counter. France is suffering strikes at the moment, but as luck would have it, I had booked the nonstop from Düsseldorf to Atlanta on Delta, and it was one of those rare trips where everything was right on time. It has to happen every now and again, I guess. My brother picked me up at Washington National Airport, and now I'm at his place in northern Virginia, just a few miles from where we were born and grew up. Full circle.

There's never a dull moment, I swear...........

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Congratulations! And thank you for sharing your special memories...

Wishing you both many, many more!

[DFW]

19. Thanks!!

We'll try for another round starting now

[Phentex]

20. Sounds like so much fun!

Love hearing about your family. Congratulations to all!

[DFW]

21. Thanks, Phentex!

We're now scattered to the four winds again: me in Washington, my elder daughter in New York, my wife back in Düsseldorf and our younger daughter in Frankfurt. But we'll be getting together again at the end of May in Frankfurt for our passing into grandparenthood. (If that isn't a word, just pretend I borrowed it from Bush, Jr.)