It all began the summer after my freshman year in college. I went with my brother Al to a Youth rally at the Kanona Youth for Christ center, Kanona, NY. Afterwards we stopped at the corner Root Beer stand for a snack. Al was talking to Joe DeSerio, Jr. about riding to Alfred College together that fall, and I was left to talk to Joe’s younger sister, JoAnne. Soon after, my college roommate visited me and wanted to go out on a double date. So I called JoAnne. He was a photo nut always taking pictures and developing them himself by the page full. Well it happens he took a picture of me making a call for that date.
A month or so after I graduated from college, we were married in JoAnne’s grandparents’ church, Arkport United Methodist, Arkport, NY. Neither the little country church I attended (Haskinville Wesleyan) nor the little country church her father pastored (Buck Settlement) would have been big enough to fit all we invited. My brother Al served as best man as I did for his wedding three weeks later. Her brother Mark and my brother Phil were ushers and my brother Phil also decorated my Olds Dynamic 88 Convertible for the trip out of town that evening. JoAnne’s college roommate whose nickname was Jody served as maid of honor.
For the honeymoon, we didn’t have reservations anywhere, we just started out. We stayed in Rochester, NY the first night and attended Penfield Wesleyan Church on the first Sunday morning of our married life. Then we drove to the Adirondacks and found a place called Hemlock Hall on the far side of Blue Mountain Lake. We stay7ed in a cabin and canoed every day even though at that time, we were not skilled at it at all. After we moved to Kirkville, NY, near Syracuse and started vacationing in the Adirondacks, I found Hemlock Hall again and we made reservations this time and stayed in the same cabin on one of our big anniversaries.
Our married life has been blessed with many beautiful chapters so far. Like many young adults, we moved a lot at first. By the time we landed at our first church assignment in Bentley Creek, PA. not far from Elmira, NY, in 1979, we had moved about 7 times.