M is for Married: My parents’ 1948 wedding in Gloversville, N.Y. Thirteenth of 26 posts in the April 2024 Blogging From #AtoZChallenge. Theme, My Life: The Prequel (in Snapshots) — adding my parents’ story to the family history mix. Please join me on the journey.
The key event in this series on My Life: The Prequal was the eventual marriage of my parents Norm and Peg (Laurence) Charboneau.
That landmark union took place on Nov. 25, 1948, in my mom’s hometown of Gloversville, N.Y., and my dad’s family happily traveled there to be part of the wedding — as well as the dinner and reception afterwards at the Hotel Kingsborough.
The local newspaper did a nice write up of the wedding, shown below. The clipping was among my parents’ records and is likely from the Gloversville-Johnstown Leader Republican.
A religiously mixed marriage
What is omitted from the news story is that my parents were embarking on a religiously mixed union.
Mom was Catholic – like her German and Italian immigrant ancestors before her –and she drew comfort and support from her church affiliation. But Dad was a vaguely lapsed Protestant who, during my early childhood, never attended church or showed any religious inclinations.
For that reason, they were married in the rectory of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, rather than in the church itself — and Dad had to pledge to raise us children Catholic.
That’s the way things stood until Dad, in his 40s, finally decided to become a Catholic himself — giving us kids the unique opportunity to attend his baptism!
Focus on family
Whatever their differences in interests and temperament, my parents agreed on the big picture — they wanted a family. And when I interviewed them during their later years, that hadn’t changed.
I asked Dad what he considered his biggest life accomplishment and he said: “I know I should say my career, but my biggest accomplishment is really our family.”
Mom — whose accomplishments included both a Masters and a Doctorate in music education — answered the same way: “I’d have to say, our family.”
Perhaps the best evidence of what their marriage meant to them was that — tucked away among their papers — they saved the invitation, and even the napkin, from their 1948 wedding day. Symbolic documents, faded but long remembered, as Mom and Dad embarked on their life together.
Up next, N is for Norm’s Navy Days: My dad’s WWII service. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit today’s other bloggers at Awww Mondays using the link below.
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