The Proposal: The sea was not angry that day, but it was a snowy Saturday night in mid-January, 1972. I had a dinner date with my girl friend at Paul Young’s which was an upscale restaurant on Connecticut Avenue in DC. Here’s a bit of trivia: Almost to the date eleven years earlier former Ambassador Joseph Kennedy hosted a pre-inaugural party at Paul Young’s for his son, President-elect John F. Kennedy. I mention this to emphasize that this was a first class joint. I don’t remember what we ate, but I picked up the check, even though I was earning only a paltry salary at Ash, Bauersfeld, Burton & Mooers. Afterwards we went to my efficiency apartment on G St., SW because Claudia wanted to listen to a record album I bought that afternoon. At one point she arose from the couch we were sitting on and started to not only sing along with an album song but also to do a little dance for me. I remember thinking at that moment “wow, she’s wonderful”. When her song and dance act was over she said “we should get married”. I responded “yeah, we should”. That was it. No down on one knee, no “would you marry me”. The song, by the way, was “Close to You” by The Carpenters. We listened to it a lot during our trip to California in 1971 and it became one of our favorite songs. Oops, there I go with irrelevant trivia again. I’ll try to stay on script.

The Search for the Ring: We wasted no time looking for an engagement ring. It involved visiting several jewelry stores in the next two weeks. The ring that she liked most was at Bailey Banks & Biddle, a renowned jewelry chain which I believe was the oldest in America (thought you would like to know that). It cost a small fortune, but I was able to obtain a three year payment plan with a pledge of our first born child as collateral.

My father got married at the end of that January and we went to Scranton for the private church wedding, attended only by my father’s two children and my stepmother’s four children and spouses. There was an intimate dinner after the ceremony and after giving a toast to my Dad and his bride I proudly announced our engagement. We got a round of applause and everyone kissed Claudia’s ring.

The Search for the Wedding Dress: This was not something that was important to me so I can’t describe it in detail. I do know that Claudia’s mother and Sue Michel were involved in the search and it seemed like it took forever to find the dress that was just right. It was located at a small store in Georgetown, and I remember Claudia and Sylvia saying that it was much less costly than what was available at larger and more well-known bridal stores. I thought “great, I nearly go into Chapter 11 for the ring and they go cheap on the dress”. Well, at least she looked beautiful wearing it.

The Selection of the Wedding Party: The choice for Maid of Honor was clear. Sue Michel was Claudia’s best friend at that time. I decided to have Bob White as Best Man because he introduced us. Both of us wanted my sister as a Bridesmaid and her husband as a Groomsman. Claudia was closer to Ennis than any of her other siblings so she wanted him to also be a Groomsman in the wedding party. That meant there had to be a third Bridesmaid. It took quite a while for her to choose someone. She was not particularly close to any other female friends or cousins, and she stubbornly refused to select any of my ex-girl friends, citing some conflict of interest reason. At one point she considered Gary’s steady (Kathy) and Ennis’ girl friend (Janet) because they were at her house quite a bit and she got to know them well. But she finally decided on Ellen Hinton who worked at Montgomery College with her. I always thought that to be a curious choice. Ellen, by the way, later married one of my law school classmates (the trivia knows no end!). I think I met Ellen once before and once after the wedding and then she was just out of our lives forever.

The Blessing of the Church: My wife’s family were parishioners at Blessed Sacrament Church in Silver Spring and that was chosen to be the site of the wedding ceremony. Blessed Sacrament did not conduct a pre-cana course in 1972, but it was required that the prospective bride and groom have a private session with the pastor, a Monsignor Stricher. He was in my view a rather grouchy unlikable old man (possibly a pedophile, although I have no evidence). The meeting with him was fairly brief. He covered basic questions such as our Catholic upbringing and training. He asked whether we loved each other. I was tempted to respond, “hell no, we’re getting married just so we can have lawful sex”, but I restrained myself. At the end he came to what probably was the whole point of the session, which was for us to affirm in his presence that we would only follow the rhythm method of family planning and never ever use any other birth control devices or pills. We both said “absolutely, that is our intent”, and believe it or not we had to sign something that he presented to us to affirm that. He then said the wedding could be held at his church in the eyes of God. As I was leaving his office I realized that I just lied to a man of the cloth, my first sin since original sin.

The Marital Home: Since we were getting married we thought we should live together so we spent a month or so looking at apartments. The place we both liked and could afford was in Gaithersburg, 775 Quince Orchard Blvd to be exact. We had to convince each other that having been city dwellers all our lives we could survive together living out in the country. I moved in about 10 days before the wedding. We jointly shopped for furniture and furnishings. I told Claudia that whatever she selected was fine with me, except that I would handle the selection and acquisition of carpeting. I already knew at that time it would not be a problem because my father, being in the carpet business, had offered to carpet our apartment as his wedding gift. And so it came about that all three rooms of our marital abode were adorned with shag rugs, which along with Scandinavian furniture, Cold Duck wine, and fondue dinners, were all the rage at the time.

The Pre-Wedding Parties: Claudia was given a bridal shower at her house. I, of course, was not invited so I don’t know whether the ladies behaved appropriately or badly. I doubt that it was a rowdy group or that a male stripper showed up. My job was to load up the car with the shower gifts. I remember being disappointed that none of the attendees gave a gift of money which we could use for the honeymoon. For my part, I had an impromptu bachelor’s party at The Corner Pub in Silver Spring just two nights before the wedding. By that I mean I was at the White house going over some final details for the Big Day, and as I was leaving Ennis, Sr., Ennis, Jr., and Gary accompanied me to that establishment for some brews and they collectively paid the check. Needless to say I was overwhelmed.

The Rehearsal Dinner: As custom demanded my father hosted a rehearsal dinner at a Holiday Inn restaurant in Silver Spring. It was attended by the wedding party and Claudia’s immediate family. But also, since there were out-of-town members of both extended families in Silver Spring for the wedding my mother-in-law arranged for a post-rehearsal dinner get-together at her house. That included her sisters and their spouses and my Uncles Jack and Jimmy and Aunt Eleanor and their spouses. I was always grateful to Sylvia for that because not only would it have been costly for my father to include an additional 12 people in the rehearsal dinner but it also provided an opportunity for the two families to converse with each other in an informal manner. I do remember having more fun that night than the previous night at my bachelor’s shindig, so much more fun that I decided rather than driving out to my country apartment I would stay in Silver Spring. And so it came to be that I slept the last night of my bachelorhood on a sofa bed in a back room of a neighbor’s house across the street from the White homestead.

The Big Day: September 9, 1972. The sea was quite calm that day. But I wasn’t. This was my first marriage so I was pretty nervous. But all of the wedding party and the invited guests showed up and the nuptial Mass was held as planned. The reception was at the American Legion Hall in Bethesda and it was catered by my mother-in-law’s catering associates. The only disappointment was that the chocolate wedding cake Claudia wanted allegedly fell off a truck on its way to the reception hall and had to be replaced by a plain old vanilla cake. Claudia and I danced to our wedding song which was Joy to the World (the Jeremiah was a bullfrog version, not the spiritual hymn). I was told that everyone had a good time. I couldn’t judge that for myself because I had a bit too much to imbibe. That was because I was so happy that Claudia was going to be my life’s partner and best friend. After the reception was over and we counted how much money we were given Gary drove us to Dulles Airport for our flight to San Francisco. At the airport I had to do one final thing before departing, and that was to call my Aunt Ann. I was saddened that she and Uncle Bill were not at my wedding because after all she raised me. But I understood, and I know from subsequent visits to their house how much both Bill and Ann liked my bride.

So that’s it. I have no more trivia for you today. But since this pandemic has caused me to seek outlets to relieve my Groundhog Day boredom, I would be glad (upon request) to share my honeymoon experiences, even the more salacious details.