wedding

At least that is what it said on the license plate, which segues nicely into…Traffic Court, Agana, Guam, September 29, 1976. The large room is filled with scofflaws awaiting the chance to plead their case on why they weren’t really speeding or why they shouldn’t be thrown in jail for driving without a license. The clerk leads 4 nervous young adults in the back doors, past the rows of defendants and their families, past the tables used by the lawyers, down to the low wooden railing in front of the imposing, still empty judge’s bench. The noise level drops a couple notches as the crowd starts to whisper among themselves wondering what is so special about these kids.

The bailiff enters from the right and loudly proclaims, “All rise!” After a few seconds the judge enters in a swirl of black robes from a door right behind his chair, looks out over the courtroom and gruffly says, “Remain standing.” He then gazes down at the 4 trembling youngsters in front of him and asks in a paternal voice, “Is this to be a double ring ceremony?”

After the judge pronounced the couple man and wife, and as they and their witnesses were escorted back out of the courtroom by the clerk, the bailiff could be heard to say, “Be seated, the first case will be…”

Newly married Brian & Donna Bogardus along with Brian’s squadronmate and his wife, Ken & Helen Tiller walked to a park adjacent to the courthouse and cracked open a coconut to celebrate.

Why am I writing this on September 28th you ask, instead of the actual date of my 30th anniversary, I’ll tell you. Guam is literally half way around the world from here and as such is 15 hours ahead of eastern daylight time, so as I write this at nearly 10 PM on the 28th it is already 1 PM in the afternoon on the 29th and we are a couple hours into our 31st year of wedded bliss. Guam, where America’s day begins and Brian and Donna’s marriage began.