MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1960 - College Years II

Edwinna Dee Lockhart (continued)

The romance eventually became serious and we decided to marry even though I still had another year before my graduation. I had a summer job offer with the Marathon Division of American Can Company in Neenah, Wisconsin. We were married in a small church in Burnside, Iowa, not far from Fort Dodge, on June 4th, 1961.

There were two interesting events that occurred in association with our wedding. When we met with the minister of the church a few days before the wedding. He had his ritual for the wedding in a small booklet and in it he penciled in the names of the bride and groom. The previous groom’s name was Lester and I remember him saying that he had better change that name so he wouldn’t make a mistake during the ceremony. He didn’t and when we got to the ‘I do’ part of the ceremony he said clearly for all to hear, “Do you Lester …”

The other interesting thing was that a high school classmate of mine, Wayne Rouse, and I had made a bet that we would be the last two in class to get married. The bet was whichever of the two of us who married last would be owed a steak dinner. As it would happen, Wayne and I were the last two in the class to get married. I discovered this a few days before Winnie and I were married when we got an invitation from Wayne to attend his wedding. The date of his wedding was June 4th, 1961. We were married on the very same day, however, his wedding was scheduled for 1 pm, while Winnie and I had already scheduled ours for 2 pm. I was therefore officially the last member of my high school class to be wed. Several years later Winnie and I collected on the bet when we had dinner with Wayne and his wife, Joyce.