From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Thu Jan 26 09:30:12 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k0QGUCjI025179; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:30:12 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k0QGU8FE016430 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:30:08 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k0QE2PFI021820 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:02:25 -0500 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k0QE2PHh021819 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:02:25 -0500 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k0QDvPFI021720 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:57:25 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k0QGOvc2022630 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:24:57 -0700 X-Envelope-From: paul_odlesr@yahoo.com Thu Jan 26 09:24:57 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k0QGOvjI022619 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:24:57 -0700 Received: from web60917.mail.yahoo.com (web60917.mail.yahoo.com [209.73.178.245]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id k0QGOtlk012840 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 09:24:56 -0700 Received: (qmail 17860 invoked by uid 60001); 26 Jan 2006 16:24:51 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=CIVCWq2PH9qrm+R82tGKHU7a+hfy4zmMRSW7XghdQuq5oNgpyrt7nfwkbp71GLIV7i5bAKz1y9CINuhISEb6j+nRkAe2NaGMU082LE/DiDPe8xCw093Han1jFEnFJBbXrDePfjPzdWb76UHZKR7gW+kGvFR8BFK1KLZJkfC3uv8= ; Message-ID: <20060126162451.17858.qmail@web60917.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [66.141.90.216] by web60917.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:24:51 PST Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:24:51 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Odle To: Roots Webb MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] My Greek Wedding My Greek Wedding I met HELEN MARGARET CALIVAS at a RED CROSS dance at the Vance Air Force Base Servicemen Club in 1951. I was an Airmen third class (A/3C) at the time. She was a real good dancer as were most of the girls I met and danced with that night. There was something about her personality that I just did not like on that first meeting. Every Friday night the RED CROSS would bring the local girls out to the base to meet and dance with the Servicemen. This was a good method for the local families to marry off their daughters. It was to be another three months before I ever saw HELEN MARGARET CALIVAS again. It was at another Red Cross dance at the base. There was not many girls that came to the dance that night and most were not good dancers. I spent the evening dancing with Helen. I found out she was a very talented pianist and that she had sewn the evening gown she was wearing. She was a very talented girl. My grandmother Daisy Frances Holliday had always told me when I was a teenager never date a girl that you would not have for the mother of your children. I thought about what grandmother had said to me, and I started dating Helen. I liked Helen's mother OPAL MARGARET JOHNSON CALIVAS right off. She would invite me to dinner and tell me Helen cooked the dinner. I had the best Greek meals at their house. Helen's father was of Greek nationality, and her mother was Swedish and Dutch descent. I was to later discover Helen's mom cooked the meals. By now I was acquainted with Helen's two little sisters ROSEMARY and GEORGIA JOYCE CALIVAS and her little brother CHARLIE. This seemed like just the family that I would enjoy being a partner in for life. I was raised in a family that believed when you married, it was for life, You made your bed, so sleep in it for life. We had a big church wedding at the First Methodist Church in Enid, Garfield County, Oklahoma Feb. 24, 1952. Their were over 300 people attending this wedding. That week we had had one of the worse Blizzards. The whole Month of February we had deep snow. Their was wedding guest from as far away as Greece. Their was a reception at the church and after the reception their was a week long celebration at the home of the bride. Their was roasted leg of lamb, all kinds of Greek cheese and wine that was imported from Greece, and also the barrels of wine my father-in-law CHARLES GEORGE CALIVAS had made. There was plenty of Greek dancing going . The Elder Greek men were dancing with Silver dollars pasted on their fore heads. Our wedding party and several car loads of friends took us out in a blinding snow storm to chauffeur us in the country. The car we were in got stuck in a snow bank and we had to push it out. At that time we did not known where the other cars were that was following us. When we got back to the party, their was still one car load missing. A cousin of Helen's, Joan Lambrose from Greece and my best man ARTHUR JOE GRAVELY from Rome, Georgia were in the lost car, as were our brides maids. Helen's Aunt Delia Lambrose was getting up set. After all they had survived NAZI GERMAN OCCUPATION during World War 11. About 3 A.M. the lost car made it back to the celebration. My Best Man; ARTHUR JOE GRAVELY, a shy Georgia boy had gotten so snookered on the Greek wine that he got sick and vomited all over himself and one of the brides maids back seat of her car. He had taken his pants off because they were covered with his vomits. This kid would have never taken his pants off in public had h! e been sober. Some how he got back to base with no pants. Needless to say he in endured a lot of ribbing from the troops when he got back to our barracks. One of the bridesmaids had JOE GRAVELY's pants dry cleaned and brought back to our apartment. It was three months later before Joe got enough courage to come to our apartment for his pants. One evening their was a knock on the door. I answered the door, it was Joe, he said' "I came by after my pants!!" I said; " Why Joe what would your pants be doing in my apartment???" There was no Greek Orthodox Church in Enid, Oklahoma. The closest Greek Orthodox was in Wichita, Kansas or Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Greek families in Enid had to bring a Greek Priest from one of those two places for Weddings, Baptismal, and funerals. That was 54 years ago. The Greek dancing and celebration went on for a week. My bride and I would sneak off for a little while and no one even missed us. By Paul L.Odle, Sr. Lawton/Fort Sill Veterans Center P.O. Box 849 Lawton, Oklahoma 73502 1-580-354-3287 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? With a free 1 GB, there's more in store with Yahoo! Mail.