Four families from Swamp Christian Fellowship in Reinholds were recently recognized by the church for celebrating their golden (50th) wedding anniversaries.
Jim and Kitty Hauck are pictured on the steps of Swamp Christian Fellowship, where they were married in 1966.
Jim and Catherine (Kitty) Hauck were married at Swamp on Aug. 20, 1966, during a summer they remember as the hottest on record at the time. Since their wedding day was also Kitty’s 18th birthday, the guests sang “Happy Birthday” to her at their reception, which was held in the church’s (non-air conditioned) social hall. Jim and Kitty have now lived in Reinholds for 48 of their 50 years together. All three of their children were baptized and confirmed at Swamp. The Haucks have six grandchildren and a great-grandson on the way.
On Saturday, Sept. 3, 1966, Les and Paulette Fry were married at the United Church of Christ in Alleganyville. Les was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., at the time. It was during the Viet Nam era, and he had enlisted in the army to get ahead of the draft. However, he was unable to obtain leave for his wedding, so he stretched the rules a bit by having a buddy sign him out on a temporary pass. But that meant he had to return to Fort Benning the day following the wedding. Paulette drove down to Georgia about a month later and remembers discovering that her sister’s cat had stowed away in her car, startling her as it awoke and jumped up on her seat after she had been on the road for quite some time!
The day after the Fry’s wedding, Jack and Sandy Ulrich, schoolmates of Les and Paulette, tied the knot on Sunday, Sept. 4, 1966, at St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Kenhorst. They had a Sunday wedding because they were marrying between Jack’s stint at boot camp and his first assignment at Fort Knox, and on such short notice it was the only available day. Jack appears virtually bald in their wedding photos because he had just gotten his first military buzz cut, despite his pleas to the Army barber to wait until after the wedding. On her first visit to see Jack at Fort Knox, Sandy’s luggage was lost, and she had to wear the same clothes for three straight days!
Merle and Joanne Hostetter were married on Sept. 17, 1966, which Joanne remembers as “a beautiful fall day.” The wedding took place at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Wernersville. Because Joanne’s father had died the year before, her brother walked her down the aisle before a congregation of about 140 friends. They were one of the first couples to hold their reception in the recently constructed Denver Fire Hall. After a honeymoon in Nova Scotia (which the couple just re-visited to celebrate the milestone), they settled in Washington, D.C., where Merle was serving as a member of 1-A, an alternative national service corps for conscientious objectors.
The church honored each of the couples with a small gift during Sunday worship.
The post Going for the gold: Four couples married 50 years appeared first on Ephrata Review.