A small anniversary party

And, it turns out, a small world

On August 22, 1959, Barbara Lee Teague, of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, wed Philip Anthony Seeger, of El Paso, Texas, in a ceremony in the First Methodist Church in Arkadelphia. That means that, this past Saturday, my parents marked 50 years of life together, and they're still going strong.

Because of a conflict that I just couldn't get out of, Pat and I missed the celebration they had on the eclipse-watching cruise in the Pacific. They had a reception Sunday after church in Los Alamos, for people who weren't able to join the cruise. I missed that one as well – I wasn't feeling so great, and I wasn't up to mingling with a large crowd of people. However, after that event, there was a much smaller gathering at their house, and that was a speed that I could cope with. Besides Pat and myself, the other guests were my uncle and his wife, who have lived in Boston for a long time – she, nearly all her life, and he, since college days – and the neighbors who lived across the street from my parents for decades – both of whom hail from Boston.

At some point the conversation came around to sailing and sailboats – we had mentioned we had a boat for sale, and then we had to explain that we were selling the MacGregor but that we had an Etchells that we were definitely keeping. The folks from Boston understood, and we ended up showing pictures of Black Magic and talking about sailing. The conversation wandered back into the past, and we discovered that all four Bostonians had at least a passing acquaintance with sailing, especially dinghies. One had raced Widgeons as a girl; one had been on some sort of dinghy that she couldn't remember what was because the people at summer camp, year after year, made her tie knots that she didn't understand before she could get on the boat. Two had sailed MIT Tech Dinghies – probably about the same time as each other, although they don't remember each other; if they were actually there at the same time, they had no way of knowing that one would someday become the neighbor and best friend of the other's kid brother.

Of course, sailing wasn't the only topic of conversation; we were, after all, celebrating two people who have kept together, through thick and thin, etc, etc, etc, for a half century. That's worth a toast.

Happy 50^th anniversary, Mom and Dad.