Jonathots Daily Blog
(2545)
(Transcript)
We figured $25.00 was going to be enough.
Actually, it had to be. That’s all the money we had left. My girlfriend’s dad had closed the bank account in Arizona, poaching our nest egg.
We climbed into our old Chevy, which the guy at a local gas station told us had no chance of making it on a long trip, and set off for North Carolina, where people of our age were allowed to get married without a parent’s approval.
Along the way, we had a blow-out of one of our tires, which is what the old bald culprits do when they reach the end of their lives. So that took $5.00 we didn’t expect.
We crossed the border of North Carolina and the first town we came to was Sparta. We found a motel, which cost an additional $7.00, and accounting for the gasoline, brought our entire kitty down to a disconcerting $8.34.
We went to the United Methodist Church in town, where the pastor agreed to marry us and even brought his wife over to witness the event. So in a large sanctuary which echoed when we talked, the lady and myself became the traditional “husband and wife.”
I didn’t have any money to give to the preacher. I was embarrassed, but young enough to quickly get over it.
We had to eat, so we went to a local diner as newlyweds and ordered exactly $3.34 worth of food, including tax.
We shared with the waitress and the cook about our nuptials, and out of the kindness of their heart, they donated the meal to us.
We both cried. It seemed like a long time since we had felt a tickle of love from human fingers.
We went back to the motel, and for the first time as legal before God and Caesar, we made love.
We had decided on the drive down to North Carolina not to return to Ohio. We realized that sooner or later we were going to have to tell people that my new wife was pregnant–and we would just rather do that with a new batch of folks, who just might maintain some original politeness.
I had a friend in Kentucky who was starting a church after his Bible College experience. He invited us to come there and spend a week or so, and have…well, have our honeymoon.
So we drove up to Kentucky, spending our last 75 cents on gasoline about thirty miles from our destination, only to discover that there was a bridge which went across the river to the little town…that had a toll.
One dime.
We didn’t have it.
So I rolled up to the toll-keeper and explained our situation. The old man reached into his pocket, pulled out a dime and dropped it into the container and said, “Consider it a wedding gift. Good luck to you both.”
We crossed the bridge to our new life…on the grace and generosity of a stranger.
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Jonathots Daily Blog 
