Christmas Eve wedding
I often imagine what my parents' wedding was like. It was winter and my dad, Freddie, was still recovering from a gunshot wound that he'd suffered in the Vietnam War. He'd been recovering at the hospital in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. My dad was 82nd Airborne. A hero who'd volunteered to go to war instead of being drafted. But, before he went off to war, he met Doris Smith. She stole his heart and if you let him tell it, they fell in love under a country moon by a tall pine tree. But I like my grandmother's story better. A friend of my Dad's had a crush on my mother, but he didn't have a car. So, he asked his buddy to drive him to see his girl. When my Dad walked in my grandmother's house with old boy, my grandmother told the friend, "You shouldn't bring someone around who's this handsome when you come courting." The next time my Dad drove out to my Mom's house, he was alone and the romance began. Then he was shipped off ...