Wisconsin Wedding

My nephew, Joshua Stephen Jasper, married Allison Stump at Settler's Park in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, at 4 p.m. Saturday, August 11, 2007. Josh, 22 (he'll be 23 in October), is a professional welder in nearby Manitowoc while Ali, 20, is a staff member at the American Club in Kohler.

It was a lovely day for a wedding, sunny and clear, and although it was rather hot (low 90s) there was no humidity and a nice breeze. Josh and Steve, my brother, and Bruce, Ali's dad, managed not to melt in their formal suits (black jackets and pants, white shirts, and magenta!! vests and ties), and I survived, too.

The reception was held afterwards at the Villager, a restaurant / bar / banquet hall just a few blocks from the park. It was a pleasant event, although I escaped (along with my mom and her husband) about 8 p.m., long before they shut the party down (about 11 p.m.)

It's not my first Wisconsin wedding.

THAT was Barb's and Steve's, December 17, 1982. It was my first trip to the "North" and (if I recall correctly) my first trip on a commercial airplane. Steve and Barb drove down to Chicago from Sheboygan to pick me up. Along with Steve's best man, Dave Pearce, I stayed with Barb's parents, Harold and Arlyn Meyers, and their two younger sons, Tom and Jim (who I didn't see again until Josh's wedding this weekend!) The reception at the (now defunct) Eagle's Club was a night to remember.

Josh is the first of my mother's eight grandchildren and the first to get married. As I told Mom and Ron, "It's like deja vu all over again. I remember being their age when Barb and Steve got married, and now I'm the same age you were when I got married. It must be triple deja vu for you!"

(They didn't seem to be too impressed by this reasoning but it worked for me...)

Saturday (the wedding day) was another anniversary, mine and Jeremy's. We would have celebrated 13 years together. I told that to Steve, who sighed and said, "Whatcha gonna do?"

"What else?" I replied. "You go on. And you remember."

And you enjoy other people's celebrations.