February 18, 1966 At The Methodist Church In Homer , Alaska. Our Wedding Day.















What a forty one year journey it has been. Looking back, our children will remember hearing a lot of the names that were involved in our wedding in some manner. I was on the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Shangri-La (CVA-38) our of Mayport, Florida. At the time of our wedding, we were in dry dock at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard going through a major overhaul. I took ten days leave and returned to Homer to be married. At that time, blood tests were required with a week waiting period, so I had my test taken by the Navy in order to get our marriage license.

Prior to my arriving, Terry had planned the wedding and sent out all the invitations. It was only after my return that someone realized that we had scheduled our wedding at the same time as the High School wrestling matches. Being that my Best Man, my brother Tad, was the Mariner Coach, they were wrestling Kenai High School, and the entire town turned out to the wrestling matches, we had to delay our wedding one hour in order to get the wedding party to the church.

Reverend Dahl was our minister, unknown to us until after the wedding, his mother had passed away that same day and as soon as the wedding was over, he left for Anchorage to fly stateside. Reverend Dahl passed away this past summer. The wedding party included my brother, Tad, Terry's brother Dean, and Dale Myhill. The Bridesmaids were Sandy Platt and my sister Patti.

The photographer for the wedding was Art Hawk, being that he worked for the Department of Agriculture, he had a professional camera so we thank the U.S. Government for our wedding photos as I am sure Art most likely developed them at their expense as some type of agricultural pictures.

Homer being a very small town, there was no doubt that we would not be able to hide out in the only hotel that was open, the Heady Hotel. Following our reception, we were sneaked out the backdoor of the Family Cafe, brother Tad had his car waiting and the two of us laid down in the back seat of the car so we would not be observed and followed. Milt Turkington and his family were not at the wedding as they had planned a trip to Anchorage, however, they graciously offered us the use of their home for our wedding night. Their refrigerator was empty, but we did share peanut butter sandwiches and an apple on our wedding night.

The following morning, our chauffeur picked us up and we had a joint family breakfast at the Family Cafe, the wedding reception party ending only a few hours prior. We did miss some of the dancing and excitement at the reception after we left. Jerry Anderson evidently had a touch to much of grape juice and decided he could whip anyone in the place. He made the mistake of making such an offer to my father. It was a fast altercation, one punch from dad and Jerry was on the floor, out like a light. In later years, Jerry become an Elder in the Mormon Church and did the memorial service for my father when he passed away. During his sermon, he made the comment that the one thing that he remembered about Vern Harrington was that he had "one hell of a punch". So, it left him a lasting impression, perhaps even showed him the errors of his way at the time.

Following the breakfast, Terry and I departed Homer on Pacific Northern Airlines en route to our new and temporary home in Philadelphia. Being married to a sailor, Terry quickly discovered that it is nomadic, but a good life. In the first seventeen years of our marriage (1966 - 1983), we lived in Philadelphia; Jacksonville, Florida (two times); Adak, Alaska; Vallejo, California; Pearl City, Hawaii; Durango, Colorado; Palisade, Colorado; Montrose, Colorado; Whidbey Island, Washington, and Anchorage, Alaska. Since my retirement from active duty in 1983, during the past twenty four years we have lived in Homer and Anchor Point, Alaska so we have settled down in comparison.

We have been blessed with four wonderful children, twelve grandchildren, two great grandchildren and as well we include our son's and daughters in law, although, we look upon them as our own children and not just by law. All of us living within 110 miles of one another, it gets no better than that. We look forward to all twenty four of us sitting around the "fire pit" at the "Hole In The Wall" in ninty days.