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February 17, 1994
Tucson, Arizona
Eighty-one couples who lived at the Voyager RV Resort gathered in the resort’s ballroom Jan. 19 to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversaries. In fact, general chair Elaine Brown said a few had been married even longer than 50 years.
Resident Bob McCormick served as master of ceremonies and presented a message of appreciation to corporate sponsor Voyager Resort and the event’s planners – all resident volunteers like himself – for this first-time event.
He pointed out that a 50th wedding anniversary is different from the other 49 in that “it consists of 18,250 days together – days of joy and days of tears with a partner to celebrate with and a partner to comfort. A true dedication to living and loving is in evidence this day.’
He and one of the Voyager RV Resort’s owners, Ike Issacson, welcomed the guests to the ballroom through special ivy-entwined golden trellises set up for the occasion.
Issacson passed along a tribute from the Voyager RV Resort’s management noting the contribution residents have made to RV park life.
Carrying through the “golden anniversary’ theme, the tables were covered in white and sprinkled with gold dust and crystal candlesticks with gold candles framed delicate bouquets of yellow blossoms and baby’s breath in cut glass bud vases. Place cards hand-printed by caligrapher Rose Stone added the perfect touch to the elegant table settings.
Organist and pianist Millie Hutt played songs of the ’30s and ’40s – particularly meaningful to the guests – and the Voyager choir under the professional direction of Elaine Brown sang “Always.’
Ann and Floyd Self were introduced as the most honored couple having been married since 1930. They said that was the year that New York City installed traffic lights and scientists predicted that earthlings would arrive on the moon in the year 2050!
Incidently, a Christmas tree cost only 98 cents at that time. That doesn’t sound like much money until, as the Selfs pointed out, you remember you had to work 10 hours to earn it – if you were working at minimum wage, which many of the then-newlyweds were.
These marriages had indeed lasted through the changes of time. Those married in 1935 – Billie and Farris Breedlove, Dottie and Clarence Craft, Della and John Neal and Ednah and Don Winship – saw the introduction of color photography and the passage of Social Security legislation. “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothin” was the song, and 38 cents brought home a dozen eggs.
Gerry and John Shannon, married in 1936, and Vi and Paul Guetschow, 1937, remember the introduction of the big band sound of swing, Jesse Owens as our Olympic hero and Edward VIII giving up the British throne for love.
In 1938, Nelle and John Emert and Elva and Blair Henry found each other while Kate Smith made “God Bless America’ popular, Orson Welles scared us with his radio show “War of the Worlds’ and The Lone Ranger rode again.
Ada and Albert Fisher, Pearl and Len Marshall, Dot and Marv Osmanson and Pat and Win Ross tied the knot in 1939 while Rhett Butler of “Gone With The Wind’ frankly, just didn’t give a damn. At home, radio soap operas added to the “entertainment.’
By 1940, Dottie and Vic Rosenthal, Grace and Willard Spier, Louise and Mac Steer, Edith and Dan Strichartz and Charlie and Julie Trout had put on their zoot suits and – as married couples – watched “Rebecca’ and hummed the tune of “Stardust.’
Between 1941 and 1944, 68 Voyager couples were married. The first year of their marriages was also the first year of World War II, color television, the year that Joe DiMaggio hit at least one hit in 56 consecutive baseball games and infantile paralysis (polio) was the big fear.
In 1942, rationing began, penicillin changed the face of illness and a “White Christmas’ was on everyone’s mind.
1943 was the biggest year for Voyager marriages: 22. McCormick asked the guests how many remembered the 1943 movie, “The Outlaw.’ Most hands raised. Then he asked how many remembered the plot of that movie. Only two hands went up.
Fifty years ago, 1944, the war was ending as were the single lives of Jeanne and George Boardman, Bee and Al Brunn, Dorothy and Herb DeRue, Alma and Vince Dostert, Irene and Pat Garrison, Barb and George Havrinche, Mary and Norman Holen, Martha and Bob Hood, Judy and Ed Jolley, Lu and Glenn Markham, Norma and Peter Mitchell, Faye and Bill Obitz, Lew and Hugh Renard, Doss and Jim Rowell, Shirley and Ted Schmidt, Wanda and Bob Shaeffer, Dolly and Bob Sinclair, Edith and Bill Vaughn and Sally and Vernon Zimmerman.
That also was the year FDR began his fourth term. Incidently – well, maybe not – the U.S. now had nine television stations.
As refreshments were served at the Voyager RV Resort, the guests were entertained by the arrival of several telegrams including one supposedly from Hillary at the White House that said:
“Sorry about the Social Security changes,’ and “I’m sure you’ll understand my Health Care program.’
Harriet Davison Meyers, of the Voyager RV Resort’s “Compass’ newsletter, researched and contributed to this story.
