Don and Maggie Thompson At Last! Half a Century Ago

Maggie Thompson, Don Thompson

Woo hoo! Don and I had been engaged for two years, and every weekend he would take the bus to Oberlin, where he would stay in a rooming house while I lived in Dascomb Dormitory (freshman year), with my grandmother (the intervening summer), and in Fairchild Dormitory (sophomore year). My college tuition was supplied by Allegheny College, where Dad taught and which participated in a faculty-member-offspring student exchange program with other colleges. So Don and I had gone through months of tension regarding whether the tuition would continue, if we married. I bet you can figure out that it did - and so it was that we found ourselves at 3 p.m. at Christ Church, Episcopal, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1962.
There was a reception in the Church Parish House following the ceremony - with sandwiches made by Mom, featuring her home-baked bread (Blue Ribbon-winning quality, per the Crawford County Fair). Mind you, she'd added food coloring to each batch, so the sandwiches were pink, yellow, green, and blue. (At least one guest - hi, Nancy! - took one look and opted to come back after she'd eaten at a nearby restaurant.) There was a follow-up celebration at the house - and then someone (Dad?) drove us north to Erie, where we caught the train to Cleveland - where we were to spend the rest of my summer vacation before we moved to Oberlin.

Susan Thompson, Charles Thornton,
Maggie, Don, James Broschart, Mary Curtis

Weather during and just after the ceremony was lovely - as you see here. But, it's fun to note, there was a light rain during the drive to the train station - and that gave us a rainbow, as we set out on our wedded adventure.
(Oh, and a postscript: That wedding gown had been worn once before: when Mom and Dad married September 17, 1941, in Hudson, Ohio. Mom had sewn it for herself.)