Brigid and Ian

When I was approximately 11 or 12, Gran announced that Brigid had gotten married. We were excited for her, and immediately thought that she'd married her longtime boyfriend, Gus. Gran said, no, Brigid and Gus were no longer dating, and she had married a man named Ian. We were going to the wedding at Geraldine and Ron's house. We were SO excited about this; Maureen and I absolutely loved going to Ger and Ron's. Ron was one of my favorite people, and we loved hanging around with Erich, who was actually our nephew. We used to refer to him as our cousin, though, since he was so close in age to us. Erich was a very precocious and hilarious little guy, who seemed to have no fear of anything or anyone. We always had fun at that big gorgeous house in Pennsylvania.

We traveled to Pen Argyl, and endured Gran's warnings that we'd better behave and not make her ashamed of us. We assured her that we'd be on our very best behavior. Soon we arrived, and there were so many people there! I often suffered from crippling shyness, and struggled to overcome that. I made up my mind in the car that I would be friendly and open, that no one liked a girl who didn't speak, and blushed whenever anyone spoke to her. I resolved to be the perfect daughter, so Gran wouldn't be ashamed of us. At least she'd have no reason to be mean to us, anyway. Maureen and I went up to the room we were to sleep in, and talked about it. We were decidedly intimidated, and I felt my former bravado melt away in an instant. We got dressed in our good clothes, and went downstairs to join the party. I hoped Gran would have some wine. Whenever Gran had wine, we didn't have to endure her evil eye all night; she was distracted and even friendly. We loved it when Gran had wine. We met Ian, and I decided that Ian was a very nice man. Funny and kind. He spoke to us as if we were grown ups. He didn't seem to notice how strange we were. I decided I liked him much better than I had liked Gus. Gus never really talked to us much. He kept mostly to himself. I never felt as though I knew Gus very well. Ian was very friendly, open and had a great sense of humor. I liked him immediately. I also loved his accent. We asked where he was from and he said Wales. I'd never heard of Wales, so I was very intrigued when he said it was near England. Maureen and I felt much better and went to check out the food, as we were getting very hungry.

We had never seen so much food in our lives! We went to the kitchen and asked Geraldine if we could help. I always felt more secure if I had something to do, and helping do some of the work always made me feel better. Geraldine said no, it was all taken care of, that we should just go and enjoy ourselves. We wandered over to the round kitchen table off the dining room and looked at the food. There was a tray filled with tiny dried fish. WHOLE fish. With eyes and everything. We looked at each other and wrinkled up our noses. What kind of fish was this? What about the bones? Any time I'd had fresh fish, the bones would get stuck in my throat. Ian came over and saw us hovering next to the tray of tiny fish. He reached down and grabbed one, and with an amused twinkle in his eye, popped one in his mouth. "Tastes like bacon", he said. Not to be thought of as a chicken, I grabbed one myself, and popped one in my mouth, and chewed and swallowed. They were delightfully salty and quite good. They did indeed taste slightly like bacon, and I had a couple more before I moved on. The food was heavenly, and I enjoyed myself immensely.

We hung around with Erich, who was our co-conspirator and confidante. Whenever Gran got too close by, we could count on Erich giving us a warning. Several times he'd run interference and keep Gran occupied so that Maureen and I could have a moment of peace without her stony glare. I adored Erich. We enjoyed the party very much, and I ate so many new and different foods. All of the people there were so nice, and we had a great time. Afterwards, Maureen and I helped clean up and do dishes. We dropped into bed exhausted but talked a bit more about how nice Ian was, and how we were glad that Brigid married him. Brigid seemed so happy.