Wedding Memories - now 50 Years!


July 29, 2010 was our 40th Anniversary. It was interesting to look at the old photos again and compare people and places - Then and Now. And enjoy our wedding all over again. Come along with us on this photo look-back.
  This is our story.


This 40 year old story (now 50) began in 1970 when Nordair - the airline I was assigned to in Montreal - was returning a leased 737 airplane to United Air Lines in San Francisco, and picking up a new airplane at the Boeing factory. Nordair sold the flights both ways as revenue trips and set up a California charter to accomplish this. I went along to look after the airplanes, and Dot, who worked for Nordair, took time off to keep me company. After a week roaming around California, we were heading back to San Francisco to take the new airplane home.


During the long drive up California's Central Valley, I got sleepy at the wheel, and seeing a sign for a California Mission,  got off the highway to walk around and clear my head. We had visited a number of other Missions - founded 200 years ago by Junipero Serra and the Spanish Franciscan Padres. There are 21 and all are special places, albeit most are now in urbanized settings.  This Mission is the smallest - and off in the farm fields by itself - tiny and alone in the shadow of the close-by mountains -  all together different. We were enchanted. Like the old Mission, we were alone - there was no one around - save the old Chapel, the crumbling adobe walls, the ghosts from 200 years of history, and the wind.

   
1970                                                                               2010
   



After a while, we got back on the road, heading North again. About an hour or more thereafter - somewhere between Salinas and San Jose, while recalling the special charms of lonely and well-named Mission Soledad, I offered that if I ever got married - I would like for it to be in a place like that. Dot said - "Me too."

   

Hmmmm........ as a wild thought suddenly passed through my head.  I asked the (big) question - "Do you want to get married there?" She said "OK!"   And so - that's how it happened.  Not on my knees, but on the freeway.

   

   


I promptly got off the freeway at the next exit and drove back to Soledad. There was nobody out at the Mission, so we cruised around the small town until we found the parish church. We rang the doorbell at the rectory. It was late afternoon. The priest's housekeeper answered the door and summoned the priest - Father John McSweeney. A gentle, slim man with an Irish accent. We told him what we had in mind; I can't remember if he was surprised or not. But, he eventually figured out we were serious. We exchanged information and agreed to resume contact when we got back to Montreal.

   
After three months of coordinating, we returned to Soledad and tied the knot in the historic old Mission.
Obviously a special occasion.  But also, a very special place.

    


   
The Rianda Family, local farmers,  and members of the Parish, felt sorry for these strangers from afar, and, having decorated the tiny chapel with flowers, hosted a small reception in their home.
We visited Norma Rianda in that same house on our 40th.

Father McSweeney arranged for some local young people to be our Witnesses.

Lynn Rianda was our Maid of Honor and Tommy Vaughn was my Best Man.

Sadly, Lynn passed away at a much too early age.
Tommy served in the Coast Guard and then became a local farmer. 
Tommy passed away in 2021.
   

Wedding Day plus 40 years



After the wedding, we returned to our hotel in Carmel, and then honeymooned traveling around California.

          

Here we are in the same hotel 40 years later - looking over the same balconies!

      
Two months after our marriage, we did things the 'regular way' and hosted a reception in Montreal for family and friends.
They felt somewhat slighted by our having eloped alone.  We have no regrets.

   
My parents............and all together with Dot's mother


   
Dot's Mom

      
My college chums ... Jim and Fran Hiestand and Judy and Bill Moritz


   

As Frank Sinatra said in his song - We did it....... 'Our Way.'


July 29, 1995 - our 25th Anniversary


July 29,2015 - our 45th Anniversary


Lunch with Norma Rianda

Golden Anniversary Update

July 29, 2020 - our 50th Anniversary!
Sadly, the Mission is closed and travel very constrained due to the virus pandemic.
So - this year, we celebrated at home.  Alone.  Sort of like when we got married.

After 51 years of marriage, my Dot passed on August 8, 2021 - for her story  click here


Copyright 2010-2021 Robert Bogash. All Rights Reserved

LINKS:

Mission Soledad History

Mission Website
Return to Family Page

The color for 40 is Ruby Red.