36 Years Ago?

Today is the anniversary of my first wedding. Yes, I was married when I was 19, on the campus of UC Irvine, on May 6, 1972. Too young, way too young. Too naive, too unformed, too sure I knew everything. Just too much.

We divorced amicably on April 15, 1976, and the details are either unimportant or forgotten, but the pictures from that day are GREAT! What a slice of cultural disconnect! What a fashion statement! Long hair, polyester double-knits (including my wedding frock), beards, giant hoop earrings, and look at all the knitted/crocheted shawls!

Here are my girlfriends and I, post-bouquet throwing:

(From left: me, Ann Niehoff, Lynn Coffman, Janet Moore, Susie Sword)

My brother Jerry, played guitar (of course he did, it was the 1970s). This is Jere, in his pre-USAF Fighter Pilot persona, when he was a theatre arts major at UCLA. Age 17. Oh my.

And here is my favorite picture of that day--my two grandmothers and my mother in profile, watching the silly goings-on. (Bess Taylor Sink, Aileen DeFazio Sink, Alyce McGahan DeFazio).

And the entire wedding party of friends, freaks and hippies:

Front: Richard Edwin Bergholdt, me, Karen Garretson. Back: Who ARE these people?

The marriage didn't last long, but I have few regrets. The experience taught me quite a bit about myself, and helped me get ready for the right man, when he came along ten years later.

But 36 years ago? You've got to be kidding me, I'm not even that old yet.