When my dad first started his disc jockeying business in 1985, he bought a hat. A black hat fedora with a red trim. (He may have been the one to put it there.) He says he bought it because so often, there would be dollar dances at wedding receptions and nothing to put the money in. Really, I think he bought it because he likes the way it looks and just ended up using it for dollar dances.
During those early DJ'ing years, my mom worked with a lot of teens at a fast food restaurant. It was not uncommon for those kids to wind up married, and lucky for them, knew someone who knew a pretty good DJ. "Linda" and "Greg Flower" were two of those kids. My dad DJ'd for their wedding and probably had a good time in his Burt Reynolds mustache and fedora. Linda remembered him and the hat, and both remember my mom.
In another world, my sister calls me up and tells me about a boy she rides the bus with. Her mom has just moved her outside of town, to a place where this boy and the Amish are their only neighbors. She tells me about the crush she has on this boy who is a year ahead of her, saying, "I like watching him walk down his driveway after we drop him off. It's just like a movie!" They eventually start dating, and he decides he wants to join the Marines. When he came back on his first leave after basic, he proposed and they tentatively set the wedding date for his first leave after her graduation.
Fast forward through the passing of her kidney stones and our grandmother, and he finds out he's going to be assigned overseas. Taking a good many things into consideration, they decide to wed during the leave he has before that assignment. That gave them three weeks to plan. Thankfully, everyone involved is a fan of simplicity and the only hitch was the newlyweds.
Even though there was no disc jockey, my dad still wore his fedora, and Linda recognized it. Greg knew immediately who I was because I look so much like my mother. My sister mentioned having seen my dad in the background of their wedding photos. Talk about a small world!
One of the most exciting parts about all this is that my sister has agreed to come live with me for a year or two while he's stationed elsewhere. As she puts it, it's going to be a year-long sleepover, and I'm excited to be by her side as she really comes into who she's meant to be.
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