Anniversary Waltz: THE STORY OF US

On the 21st, Phil and I will have been married 50 years. As is often the case, in a way it seems like forever, but in other ways it seems like yesterday. We had known only each other a year and half. We got married between semesters of graduate school for Phil at Rutgers. I had just turned 19. He was 22. After spending the first weekend together at our new apartment in New Brunswick, I returned home to work for Bell of PA until I could get a transfer to New Jersey. It didn't seem as odd at the time as it does now. I was still a child in most senses of the word.

We had met in the summer of 1965 in New Hope, his hometown. His parents owned a luncheonette/newsstand there. I had worked in New Hope the summer before but that summer I just happened to be visiting the friend I had roomed with in '64. It looked to be a summer romance for both of us. And nearly was. I think we both went off to college believing that. But after a time, it became clear it was more.

Crystal Palace where we both worked in '66 and I worked in '64

A warm January in Philly. Phil's brother, Billy, is missing from this picture. That's my brother, Jeff, on the left.

Phil finished his Ph.D in 1970, the year our son, Josh, was born. We moved to Michigan where Phil got a tenure track job teaching political science. A year later, Megan came along. Fifty years, wow.

Today I will be marching in the Million Women Parade in Detroit. Then we will drive to Chelsea MI and see a play and spend the night. Tomorrow we will have brunch with the Agnews in Ann Arbor (Aunt Agatha's Bookstore) A nice day.