42 More Years? We'll Shoot for Twenty...

Just about everyone who ever hears our story, mine and Bruces, can hardly believe we're telling the truth. How in the world can you still be so crazy for one another after all this time?

Magic, that's how.

Seriously, it really helps if you are a woman and marry a kind man. Conversely, I think the same would be true for a man. Kindness pretty much trumps all attributes as far as I'm concerned. Then too, not too lofty expectations is good. Because we started dating when we were thirteen, we more or less grew up together. Neither of us ever expected to be nearly as financially comfortable as we are at this age. Then too, neither of us ever expected to have FOUR SONS either! We made a pact early on in our marriage to never be "house poor" and we've stuck with that plan. In the early years, particularly after the twins were born, money was scarce, however, it did not come between us as is so often the case with couples. We just kept plugging along....

Here we are on our wedding day, August 18, 1973.

He was as cute as a button wasn't he? Oh that sweet smile...

So, with that little bit of background, you will understand that when I began thinking of a gift I could give my beloved for our anniversary, not a thing came to mind, until I realized that the best gift I could give him was a day off from the market, regardless of the weather. Because he is now out of town for the week, spending time together on Sunday was gift enough for both of us!!

I learned that there was a vintage camper show going on at Renninger's in Mount Dora, so after breakfast out at Carol's Place, off we went. Of course the weather was brutal--hot, hot, hot! Just as we were arriving, we saw at least two campers heading out, but not before I took this photo of one of them.

Perhaps you are wondering why this was of interest to us? Mr. Bruce has a thing for teardrop trailers, although, unlike the folks you'll soon be seeing, he thinks a new one would be just fine. He's been wanting a camper for some time now, however one thing and another has kept him from buying one just yet. Yet, being the operative word.

We began perusing the remaining ones, and it did not take long before becoming smitten! People really go to a huge effort restoring them, and in some case completely rebuilding, as these folks from Archer, Florida did.

The woman is on the left, her husband is on the right talking to B. How darn cute are those little lights using Solo cups? It took them nine months to get it into this fantastic shape, not to mention having all kinds of cute, cute, cute accessories.

The inside is just as cute...

A Scotty pillow for a Scotty camper!! There was an area for Volkswagon camper vans, the ones we saw were pretty darn old, and showed it. The bug, on the other hand, looked super, and the fellow who owned it was just the same. He tows his little camper behind the 1976 bug.

Before seeing a friend's camper I had never heard of Scotty campers, but now that I have, I can see why there are plenty of devotees!

Super fun colors to begin with. What the folks have done with the tiny interiors is just wonderful.

A super old fully restored Ford pick up pulled this one which is a newly built look alike.

What's not to like about all that tidy storage? Another aisle had three done by one man--he seemingly can't get enough of them. His looked like this inside:

whereas his wife's looked like this...

Aren't the tables adorable? But, what stopped me in my tracks this morning, while looking at yesterday's photos, was this one:

A lot of pink, right? Why I did not notice it in person, I can't say, but those back two pillows....

Look here:

Not the clearest shot, but this is our baby Matthew, some 38+ years ago in his nursery. As you may recall, pre-delivery gender identification had yet to be invented, so when making the curtains, and accompanying changing table pad, etc., I chose something that had both pink and blue!! I can only imagine that the owner of that cute little camper came across an estate sale with leftover fabric? What a SMALL WORLD! I still can hardly believe what I'm seeing!

We did some further roaming around, bought a few items which I'll show at a later date, and decided to head home out of the heat. Rain clouds were looming. Earlier in the day, while getting ready, I put on my Lily dress from David and Michelle. Cute little sandals too. Then, in a stroke of either good luck, or good sense, I changed into shorts and my Keds. Thank God because when I stepped into an ant bed beside our car, had I been in those sandals I would have been SOL! I am very allergic to bites, as is well documented on this blog; in an instant they began biting away. My darling, KIND husband, ran to my side, rubbed them off of my legs, and quickly removed my shoes. He must have spent five to ten minutes, painstakingly removing all of the ants from my shoes before returning them to me. Once in the car, just up the highway, he stopped at Publix for a stick of relief, an after bite stick.

And you wonder how we can be so happily married after all these years!!

One of the things we purchased was a gift for Cheryle, whose birthday we were celebrating at Bill and Roxanne's house. The great thing about having friends your own age is they happily start get-togethers at 5 or so, anticipating early bedtimes! Cheryle was mighty surprised that's for sure.

Roxanne made, not one, but two Angel Food cakes with a scrumptious frosting, because next Saturday is Oren's birthday, and he and Lisa will be out of town. Naturally he's photographing the cake before we sing! Doesn't everyone these days?

Oh happy days!

As to the market, I learned today that there were heavy showers early, cleared up for a while,  but by 2:30, the day was done.

It certainly rained like mad later in the day. In the last five or so days, we've had five inches of rain, in spite of what the newspaper says. I've got a rain gauge, so there!

One lucky gal,

Gail