A couple of weddings

Wednesday I only had two wedding ceremonies to perform.  Only one of them is interesting, weird, trouble.

The couple was older.  The bride was 41 and the groom was 52.  She was extremely nervous, deer in the headlights nervous.  Her English was limited, but she understood everything.  She kept going back and forth on whether to do traditional vows or to say her own.  He wanted traditional.  Finally she decided traditional vows.  I asked if they had rings and he said they were speed dating and hadn't had time to buy rings.  I did the ceremony, pictures are taken and I asked the witnesses to sign.  First her son signs.  The son's name is printed out (fake name to protect the guilty) Sun Lee Wong.  I point to where he is to sign and he writes David Wang.  I take it into the marriage desk clerk.  Will the state take his Americanized name.  Her answer a signature is a signature.  No problem. 

I go back in the wedding room to have the second witness sign.  Then back to have the license certified.  As the clerk is starting to copy it, the son says that isn't my name. Huh?  You put in the wrong name, I said no , you gave us the wrong name.  We put in what you write down and give us.  His name was not Wong, it is Wang.  O and A are no where close on the keyboard, so not likely to be a typo.  Plus there were other mistakes that they had put into the computer.  The clerk puts in what they print on paper and hand to her , the computer puts in what they enter, and we ask them to read the monitor before the license is printed.  The four of them never noticed any of the errors.  So reprint, re sign. 

While the corrections are being made, the groom says, "We met 13 days ago.  I am out here on a road trip on my Harley and met her.  I can't stand to leave her behind.  So we are marrying and she and James will fly out to Colorado next week.  I will go up to Seattle and finish my trip and be home to meet them."

I find this situation very romantic and scary as hell at the same time.  I do wish them all the luck in the world.  I really really wish I knew the ending to this story.

Update on driver's licenses

A friend from high school posted on facebook after I wrote the blog about Mother renewing her driver's license.  He now lives in Tennessee.  He said he has a friend who has been blind since the 1990s.  She had renewed her driver's license 3 times since going blind.  I told him Tennessee wins for the state that is that is the most wacky. 

Watch out if you are driving around Knoxville, Tennessee for the blind lady.  If in Kentucky watch out for the lady in a blue van driving only in an emergency. She may not be able to walk far, but she is legal to drive.

My Mother and her driver's license

When I called my Mother in Kentucky a couple of weeks ago, I asked her what she would be doing that week.  Monday she had a doctor's appointment, Friday she would get her hair done and go to lunch.  Oh, on Tuesday she was going to the county seat to renew her driver's license. (In KY you can only renew your license in person,  unless you are in the military) I was stunned I had no idea she still had a license.  My Mother will be 94 tomorrow.  She is active, she is sharp as a tack, she works cross word puzzles every day.  But driving???

She can not walk far and uses a wheel chair when they go out.  She doesn't roll it, someone pushes it for her.  I asked why she was getting a license and not a Kentucky ID.  "There might be an emergency and I would need to drive."  I asked if she had to take a test:  driving, written, eye.  "They never have had me take one before."   So this week I asked if she got her license. Yes indeedy.  No test taken. All she had to do was sit down and have her picture taken, and off they went with the license.

In Kentucky you evidently only take a test once and you can drive forever.  Kentucky and much of the country did not require a driver's examination/license until the late 1930s.  Mother drove for several years with no license.  She told me when she got her first driver's license, my Daddy went down to the county seat and picked it up for her.  She never took a driver's test for the state of Kentucky.  When we lived in Colorado in the late 1940s she did take a test for a license there.

One quick story of her driving pre- license.  While in college her boyfriend from home (not my  Daddy) drove up to visit her. There was a big snow storm and he couldn't drive home.  Remember this is the 1930s in the mountains of Kentucky.  The roads were two lane and had lots of twisty dangerous curves.  Her boyfriend had to go to work the next morning, so he rode the train home.  Mother was to drive his car home the next weekend.  Her best friend, Prissy, and she drove home the next weekend.  Mother drove until they would reach a town.  She would stop and Prissy would drive through the town.  Then Mother would again take over and drive.  They drove like that for 75 miles.  Why you ask?  Mother had only driven on highways with her boyfriend's arm around her helping her to steer.  She was afraid of pedestrians and oncoming cars.  Prissy was much more experienced at driving.

I am sure you are now wondering why Prissy didn't just drive all the time.  Mother's boy friend did not like Prissy and did not want her driving his car.  Mother never told him Prissy helped drive home.