Janet's Blog

It was quite a week, that week leading up to our wedding on the 21st day of December in 1974. Bill had insisted on having our wedding right after he graduated from Milford Technical School (now Southeast Community College), so he had just completed finals and his family had driven the nearly 400 miles from Gering to attend his graduation the previous weekend. His dad wasn't too pleased about having to ask for time off work twice in a week's time during the sugar factory campaign, where he worked rotating shifts at the height of the sugar processing season. And the thought of making that long trip four times in 10 days must have been more than a little irritating for the whole family. Mom and I were both attending Concordia College (now Concordia University) in Seward, so we both had finals that week, and Mom technically graduated, although she didn't have a graduation ceremony just then. Mom had to drive back and forth to Seward for each of her finals, while I was still liv...

I don’t remember the actual wedding ceremony, or the reception, either, when my Aunt Marj married Norm, but I know the wedding was held at the Methodist church in Norfolk. By the time I was nine years old, I had attended a few weddings and receptions and, by then, I realized that most church weddings and receptions were about the same; they were special occasions, for sure, launching marriages that might last for decades, but the wedding ceremony itself was nothing memorable for a child who had attended more than one, and the wedding cake and punch, while satisfying, weren’t much different than any other cake and punch I'd ever had. Just a few weeks earlier, my family had moved from the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk to the Hotel Mary-Etta in Fairbury. The wedding would have marked the first time our family returned to Norfolk for a visit, so that added to our excitement. I remember arriving at Grandpa and Grandma's house that mild June morning, and finding a houseful of relatives scu...

It's been fifteen years since my middle daughter, Meagan, married Andy. Fifteen years of living and working in and around Gering, and five, almost six, children later, everyone they know would say that they are happily married. Their wedding was big and formal, and held in our church, like many weddings were then, at least here in Gering, with a sit-down dinner and dance afterward at the Civic Center. They both grew up here, and were well-known in the community, so many local people attended their wedding. In addition, they each had large extended families who were willing to travel quite a distance to be present for their big day. It was a memorable day, for sure. Fifteen years ago, our family was quite small. They both settled in to teaching, living in an old house on Andy's family's farm before building a house at the same location about ten years ago. Now, Andy continues to teach at Gering High School, while Meagan has been focusing her teaching skills on her own childr...