We did not deliberately choose the 100th anniversary of the Custer Massacre to get engaged. For one thing Custer's Last Stand is not a big deal in Oregon, where we lived at the time. For another, both Reed's proposal and my acceptance were unrehearsed and spontaneous. Even Custer could have made a better plan. But perhaps that doomed engagement date explains the series of mishaps that occurred a year later on our wedding day. Thankfully, only vehicles were massacred. I know the big celebration, the Golden anniversary, is reserved for the 50th, and I think Reed and I will manage to make it one more year. But 49ers is more fun to say and filled with double meanings so that's what this poem is about.
49 Years Ago Today
Today we are officially 49ers--
not the NFL kind, the padding
we have put on through the years
has nothing to do with football.
49 years ago today, Reed and I entered
the unexplored frontier of marriage.
We were looking for gold.
We had glimpsed gold dust before,
but the longer we sought for the source,
the deeper and richer the gold became.
One promising vein played out
far sooner than expected, but we know
it is resting deeper in the Master's mine
and someday we will find it again.
Other seams divided into veins
even more robust than the originals.
And the gold we have mined on earth
will become unimaginable riches
once it is refined by the Master.
The Golden anniversary is the 50th,
but we struck gold 49 years ago, today.
6/25/26
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