A Marriage Story

(Or… The Exciting  of Newlyweds and Their Crosstown Journey)

March 22nd, 1968 - what a very special time for us!

We were married at 8 p.m. on a Friday night - very simple but formal wedding by candlelight.

But that is not what I'm telling you about. It's after the ceremony that this part of the story starts.

Leaving on a Jet Plane – no -  leaving in our 1963 Chevy Bel Air with a 357 engine. If David Cousin Eddie had not attached special fireworks to the spark plug wires we might have been able to fly out of the parking lot. But that was not to be. It wasn't enough that they had a door in the car with toilet paper -  shoe polish some of which outlasted the car the rocks in the hubcaps and the rice in the AC vents added sound effects to the music of the night.

What have they done to our car?

It was all we could do to “chug-a-lug” out of the parking lot and into the service station. With a quick inspection we were able to reconnect the loose spark plug wires without igniting the fireworks under the hood. We also remove the fish from the engine block and some of the rocks from the hubcaps. Once done we were on our way.

Alone at last… or so we thought!!!

Very quickly we realized that we were being followed - not by one car dash but by three. We had no intent on having them follow us to our honeymoon destination and we knew they would not give up. So to lose them we headed out to the Navy base. When we got to the Southgate we plead with the guard to allow us to the past while stopping are pursuers.

As we sped through the base we decided to exit by the hospital gate only to find our pursuers right in front of us.

Other than give up - we did a u-turn outside the gate, headed back in and once again pleaded with the guard to hold the Chasers until we could escape. This time it was successful and we fled towards the Reynolds Avenue exit gate and hid behind the row of bars and nightclubs.

Waiting to make sure we had lost them, the door to one of the bars opened and out popped a “Saturday night regular” who encouraged everyone else in the bar to come out and congratulate us! Not a good idea. We crank the car and made a quick exit

We crept out of the lot looking at in all directions to make sure we have lost them.

Success. We had lost them.

Just one little hiccup in our rush to get out of the wedding, I had forgotten my suitcase. That meant we had to drive all the way back to my house before everyone else got there!

It was 11 miles out of town. “Step on the gas, David. We've got to beat them home!” I said. We drove up the driveway and I thought, “wonder who is here?” We walked in the house - all the lights on, all the doors open dash but no one home! A house full of people and not one remember to close the door, turn out the lights and lock up! But that was a good thing cause I had forgotten my key!

Before anyone could get back home we grab my suitcase and made our Escape all the way back down to the Holiday Inn across the street from the church.

Because our wedding was so late in the evening we had planned on spending the first night in Charleston and then leaving the next morning for our honeymoon. But we never told anyone that we would be staying at the hotel right across the street. Can you imagine what our friends would have done if they had known that?

That little short trip across the street to our hotel tickets about 2 and 1/2 hours.

~ Jeannie Joyner