Sunday, July 01, 2007

Wedding and Reception


(Above - toasting)

Yesterday we went to a wedding in the family. It was a tradition southern Baptist wedding.

Afterwards we went to the reception in nearby Roswell at the famous Roswell Mill Site. The owner of Roswell Mill was the founder of Roswell, Roswell King. What is so famous about Roswell Mill is that during the Civil War when Sherman’s Yankee forces took over the area he found that Roswell Mill was fabric kind of things to aid the Confederacy. He had the women Mill workers arrested for treason and they were sent to factories in the north to work.

They went to work one day and found themselves on a train heading north. They didn’t know that morning would be pulled apart for their families and loved ones.

A rushing creek noisily flows by, which I am sure in 1864 the mill made good hydra use of that fast flowing water.

Now, it is a place for special events, such as wedding receptions.

They had finger food, opened bar, a dj, hustling waitresses and waiters to keep dirty scrappy dishes off the tables.

The bride and groom came in and were cheered and so were the groomsmen and the bride’s maids.

They danced. They danced many combinations. Bride and Groom, Groom and mother, bride and new father-in-law, and on and on. The Bride’s father is a preacher that does I think does not believe in dancing. He danced with his 7 or 98 year old granddaughter.

People got up and made toasts to the newly wed couple… some people got emotional when trying to speak. Then they cut the cakes – both cakes, the wedding cake and the groom’s cake which looked like a golf clubs bags. I was one of the first in line to get a piece.

It was hot as hell.

Plenty of people had to step outside in the evening air to get a breath of cool fresh air. And the smokers greeted them with opened arms.

We sat with my sister-in-law and her daughters. The music and the speech making got loud and we had to holler at our table to hear each other talk. My sister-in-law, a very religious woman, hollered to me, over the noise in the room “I used to dance with the Devil and now I dance with Jesus!”

I thought, “What kind of dancing with Jesus.”

Once when sight seeing in Los Angeles my sister-in-law and her daughters found the Hollywood Bowl and she stood under the acoustic shell and sung “Amazing Grace.” After he husband died she and her friend found a new love: Traveling. They have traveled just about all over the world and make the best unpredicted scrapbooks. That is what makes her scrapbooks good: Thelma knows no journalistic rules to guide her, so she has complete freedom to make her scrapbooks anyway way she wants.

This night she told us seating near her about her and her late husband’s wild times in Las Vegas when they apparently lived there… that was when she dancing with the Devil.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a hoot. Did you dance? If so, with whom? The Devil or the Christ?

Eddie said...

I danced with the Devil in the pail moonlight. Seriously, the Devil was there....I'll have to email you about it directly later.

kenju said...

It sounds like a great place for a reception, but didn't they have air conditioning?

Anonymous said...

Sherman was a real sweetheart. Though frankly I am glad my ancestors lost in the long run (hey i am still proud of their rather foolhardy devotion and courage), I still cant get past what a racist dirtbag Sherman was...as well as a whiskey swilling war criminal and vandal.

Thats just me though.

Eddie said...

Judy,
If they had air conditioning it was broken. It was hot. And no overhead fans either.

Steve,
I am sure there were worst, but the worst thing I remember reading that Sherman did was put CSA P.O.W. in front of his march to the sea. If there were to be any land mines, they would get it first.

Unknown said...

Ed,
your email was a HOOT! Hipster and I both laughed and laughed. I wonder who I would have chosen to dance with, had I been there? I do love to dance! I'd rather dance with the Devil than cry with the saints...hahahahaha

Eddie said...

Aw shucks! I only report'em as I see'em.

You and the Hipster have a happy safe trip.... don't get choked on too many crawfish.

Suzanne said...

You know, it just seems so wrong that the factory ladies got charged with treason for just trying to make a living while the leaders of the CSA went on to live nice comfy lives after the war.

Eddie said...

Suzanne,
General Sherman himself originated the quote "War is Hell" and he was right. Not only that, but it "War is Unfair" also.

Suzanne said...

Well, it's sort of like after WWII. Most of the honcho Nazis were given plum jobs after the war to help rebuild society. The truly bad apples usually get away with it, and the ones who pay the price usually are the ones who just happened to be there.

Eddie said...

Suzanne,
The elite always get through things scratched and scoffed free and overall probably became rich over the event.