Chapman Family Reunion - 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Well, I mentioned family pictures in the last post.  We did, in fact, hire a friend of mine who is a professional photographer to take our pictures.  (50th wedding anniversary, every single family member gathered, and all.)  They turned out SO gorgeous.  If you are local and need some great photos, ask Effie Clayton!  I debated about posting the photos here, but I don't want to ruin it before I actually get my behind to the post office to mail the discs out to family first.  (Yes, family, I will be doing that next week.)  Maybe after I mail them out, I'll post them.

(we did enjoy the company of this road runner eating a lizard while we were having our pictures taken)

(and no matter where grandpa goes, there is always a pile of grand-kids on top.)

So, AFTER we got all dressed up and took pictures, we headed over to Joe's Pasta House in Rio Rancho for:

Barbara and Earl's 50th Wedding Anniversary!

June 15, 1962

(If you like that wedding dress, it's in the Salt Lake landfill - Grandma threw it away last year?!!!)

I sound like a string of commercials here, but I have to recommend Joe's Pasta House too.  It's this great little family-owned Italian restaurant about 2 minutes from Barbara and Earl's new house.  Joe was the BEST to work with.  He personally e-mailed and called me several times to arrange all the details.  They gave us the perfect combination of a great, but simple menu, servers, a private room (completely separate from the restaurant,) and just enough staff interaction that we didn't have to do any work, but could still do our own thing in an intimate setting.  They had a 50" mounted TV which was perfect for family slideshows and videos and allowed us to bring in our own cake (but served it for us.)

David should really write about this.  Come ON babe.  I'm just an outsider.  But, it was pretty cool to see each of the siblings say something nice or bring up a memory of the family.  Jane had asked everyone to write something about what they learned from being raised in their family and those were given to Barbara and Earl as gifts.  

Barbara and Earl also stood and each talked about the other.  That was pretty cool.  Even though Barbara loves to talk, she rarely gets sentimental and Earl is a man of very few words.  So, it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the grandkids to see their grandparents get a little mushy and talk at length about their marriage and learn a bit about what makes them all tick.   Highly educational!  I tried to video it, but the lights were so low, the video is totally horrible and the audio isn't the best either with Harriet trying to talk to me in the background.

David and I made a slideshow out of all of Barbara's pictures and set it to 5 of the top songs from 1962.  We also looked up a few facts from the year:

1962

Sample of News and Happenings:

January:  Amber colored turn signals for cars approved – changing them from the same color as headlights

February:  8 of 9 planets align for first time in 400 years; John Glenn orbits the Earth

March:  Beatles TV debut (in UK)

April:  MIT sends TV signal by satellite for first time from MA to CA

May:  Christmas Island nuclear testing

June:   Barbara and Earl get hitched!!

July:  House passes bill requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of gender

August:  Nelson Mandela arrested; Marilyn Monroe dies

September:  JFK sends 3000 troops to integrate University of Mississippi

October:  Cuban Missle Crisis

November:  Great Britain and France decide to build Concorde

December:  first operational navigational satellite launched

How Much Things Cost: Median Family Income:  $6000 Minimum Wage:  $1.25 New House:  $15,000 Gallon of Gas:  25 cents New Car:  $2,500 Pack of Gum or Candy Bar:  5 cents Stamp:  4 cents Color TV set:  $400 Newspaper:  10 cents Refrigerator:  $500 Doctor’s Visit:  $5 Movie Ticket:  50 cents Popcorn at the Movie:  20 cents

Top 10 songs of 1962: Stranger on the Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles Mashed Potato Time by Dee Dee Sharp *Roses are Red by Bobby Vinton The Stripper by David Rose Shelley Fabares by Johnny Angel *The Locomotion by Little Eva Let Me In by the Sensations *The Twist by Chubby Checker *(Surfin’ Safari by the Beach Boys was #100 on the Billboard list) *songs used in slideshow

I felt like I had already done some solid homework about life in1962 having become a fan of watching Mad Men lately.  What a crazy year!  No matter how you pack it - 50 years of marriage is quite something.

I think the sweetest part of the night was that Barbara and Earl both made hand-made gifts for each of the grandchildren.  Barbara made adorable Christmas ornaments and Earl made these awesome number games in his wood shop.  My kids could not believe they got their own to take home.  They both LOVE all of Grandma's ornaments we have on our tree and can't get enough of the number game! 

Much love to these 2 amazing people.  I'm so glad they got married and had that LAST child.  I kind of like that LAST one a lot.  The others are pretty cool too.