WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU LOOKED THROUGH PICTURES FROM YOUR WEDDING ALBUM?

Arnee and I married on June 15, 1975. Without a video at the time, I can still recall conversations and statements from our wedding guests.

Cousins Isa and Michael (groom’s side) informed us they had the same wedding song...So Much In Love by the Tymes and, on our wedding day, Cousins Eileen and Don (groom’s side) celebrated five years since they eloped. Cousin Roger (bride’s side) cautioned me to remember it was the first day of the rest of our lives.

On our wedding weekend, Cousin Sharon (groom’s side) and her then-husband, Lex, bought a lakefront vacation house in the Poconos. Some of the relatives at our wedding were with their first husbands or wives, lost loves, and even an uninvited random escort. So many seen in the photos are no longer living. Assuredly, though, they are not forgotten.

Our honorary “grandmother of the day” was Tante Lena (groom’s side). She's pictured wearing a corsage, embraced by her nephew, my father-in-law. Another photo shows her being escorted down the aisle by two grandnephews. She had been married to the older brother of Arnee’s paternal grandmother. Family lore says Tante Lena agreed to his proposal because he was from the Neidich family, and she babysat for Golda Meir from the Neidich dynasty when she lived in Pinsk. Golda’s mother, a Neidich, was a first cousin once removed to Arnee’s paternal grandmother and her siblings. Golda was their second cousin.

It would be problematic to list all the friends and relatives at our wedding who knew each other from different walks of life or simply from meeting at family events. For example, on the day of our wedding, we learned that Cousin Isa (groom’s side) knew Cousins Paula and Figgy (bride’s side), and so did Cousins Barbara and Sheldon (groom’s side). See my September 22, 2022, blog post I Was Supposed To Be Their Flower Girl, with references to other pertinent blog posts.

Sheldon (groom’s side) also knew my parents, older brothers, and even me as a baby. Cousins Larry and Herbie (groom’s side) knew Aunt Bea (bride’s side) and Aunt Bertie and Uncle Moe (groom’s side) knew Aunt Fannie (bride’s side). Bertie’s sister Gertie and Aunt Fannie were best friends from school in their “down neck” Newark childhood neighborhood.

The parents of one of my bridesmaids, our dear friends Erica and Danny Marcus (bride’s side) knew Uncle Nate (groom’s side), their pharmacist, and our photographer was Ben David, a friend of our sister-in-law Bobbi’s parents, who were at the wedding. Some of my mother-in-law’s relatives knew my parents and even remembered my grandfather, Harry Friedman, who, years earlier, delivered ice and coal to their families in Linden. The list goes on.

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~Arnee and I are referred to as “groom’s side” when listed together at the wedding of our son Judd.

Fast forward to our son Judd’s wedding on November 12, 2017, in Cleveland, Ohio, where our friends also had some long-term connections aside from being friends with us. For example, our friend Connie worked with my brother Stu before I met Connie in grad school in 1978.

Maureen and I worked with Aunt Edie (groom’s side) in the mid-1970s at the Elizabeth, New Jersey, Unemployment Office, where Maureen and I met. Aunt Edie was instrumental in my getting that first job out of college in 1975. Maureen commented on my August 30, 2022, blog post, Mind Your Business, but Nate's and Edie’s families assuredly had no idea why she mentioned Edie Beck.

The bride’s father acknowledged that my genealogy research showed her paternal grandfather’s grandfather was born in the same shtetl as my father (groom’s side), Chudnov, Ukraine. It doesn’t get much closer than that.

Then came my speech. When I announced that our friend, Dr. Phil Greenspan (groom’s side), a Professor at the University of Georgia, signed our ketubah (marriage license) and was here from Georgia, a guest on the bride’s side asked to meet her brother’s colleague. It turned out her brother was a good friend of Phil at the University in Athens, Georgia.

A couple of family friends from Cleveland (bride’s side) knew my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin from Cleveland (groom’s side). Our daughter-in-law’s father (bride’s side) worked with that cousin (groom’s side) until her retirement years earlier. Again, the connections are extraordinary.

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~Arnee and I are referred to as “bride’s side” at our daughter’s wedding.

Our daughter Rina married on June 30, 2019, the month and day my parents (bride’s side) married in 1940, at the same venue where Arnee and I (bride’s side) married in 1975. One of our guests (bride’s side) had once been married to a relative from the groom’s side.

One of our lifetime friends was randomly seated next to our cousin. They attended the same high school, which they both graduated from years apart, in the 1960s. Distant cousins from my side reunited or met for the first time that day. The same thing happened with cousins from Arnee’s side. In both cases, a rekindling of family connections sparked and new bonds formed (bride’s side).

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It’s super fun to see where life takes us. While we wait longingly for the albums from our children’s weddings (hint, hint) we still remember the connections of our families too numerous to count. Another time we can discuss the styles of the times.

For now, enjoy some of the photos from our album. See if you’re there or if you spot any of your loved ones.

There’s so much history stowed in those photo albums. Where are yours?