June 14, 1980, Manhattan, Montana

That's a young Doug and Nancy, 30 years ago in their back yard on their wedding day. I can't for the life of me remember what that is that Robyn is holding up in front of us. At least I had the incredible presence of mind to flash the peace sign over Nancy's head. We decided to get married in our back yard because neither one of us could remotely imagine a church wedding; neither one of had set foot in a church in years, and we haven't been to a church service since. Our hypocrisy meters would have topped out. And it was a good decision for us. It was cheap and fun, quick and totally without most of the trappings of religion. We decided to get married because we were already living together for a couple of years and now we owned a house together. It seemed like the logical thing to do.

That's my best man, Bill, on the left and my brother in law, Tony, on the right. Both visited us in Leran last summer. Just beside the beer can Bill is holding up is the front end of my old 1969 Dodge D-100 pickup. Bill, later on, got up on the roof and graced us all with a bright and shining full fmoon. I believe my other brother in law, Darrell paid him a couple of dollars for the performance, but Bill would have done it for free in any case.

Here we are sealing the deal with our witnesses, Bill and Susie, standing by as required by Montana law. On the marriage license, it was duly noted that I was a "White Man" and Nancy was a "White Woman". I'm not sure what would have happened if it had been otherwise.Here's my dad, Dwight, giving Nancy and I a hug, and as I remember bawling his eyes out, crying like a baby. He was rather an emotional man and he would burst into tears at moments like these. I remember stepping out the door, heading off to New York City in a 1962 VW Bug, on my way to Europe for the first time. Dad got up way before the crack of dawn to see me off, and he was crying buckets of tears as if I was shipping out to VietNam.

Here's the lovely couple toasting to wedded bliss. No rental tuxedo for me and no fancy wedding dress for Nancy as we were not going to go into debt on our marriage day. We could barely afford the keg, much less an expensive dress. However, please notice I'm wearing the beautiful paisley flowered tie that my sister had made for me. Nancy was wearing the lovely skirt that she herself had made for the occasion, and I remember that it had tiny holes in a pattern that she had spent many evenings hand embroidering the edges.

Here we are cutting the cake that Nancy's friend Betsey made for us. We bought a half a pig and barbecued the thing on the grill, we had a keg of beer on hand (darn near finished it), and friends brought salads, hot dishes, bottles of wine and whiskey. If you've been to a pot-luck wedding before or since, let me know. Nobody was really sober that afternoon. I think a good time was had by all (except for that cute, grumpy little girl). The rain held off and it was not too hot. A perfect day.
We shoved cake in each others faces as custom requires. That's my sister, Leslie, looking on.
Here are my siblings; from the left Peggy, Amy, myself and Leslie. Leslie's the oldest and Amy's the youngest and Peggy was in the middle just after me. The dog is Cisco with his ceremonial bandanna tied around his neck. We actually said our vows near Cisco's dog house, where nearby he had a large 5 gallon water bucket. Just as we were coming the the real serious, solemn part of our vows, where things are said barely above a whisper, Cisco chose that moment to go over to his water bucket, and behind me, all I could hear was "Glug, glug, slurp, slurp, glug, glug!!! The little fellow in the red pants harassing Cisco is my nephew, and Leslie's son, Andrew. I guess he's about 32 or so these days.

Happy 30th Anniversary, Nancy.