It is a little complicated and I heard different versions of the tale floating around over the weekend. One way or another, my WideEyedParents fled south to North Carolina and got married in 1963. They married with little consideration for the impact of a July wedding date on their forthcoming 50th wedding anniversary party.
It was warm.
Fifty one parents, kids, aunts, uncles, cousins, first cousins once removed, twice removed in all directions, second cousins, fictive kin cousins, grandparents, in-laws, and yet to be born WideEyedFamilyMembers sweltered in the humid July afternoon of rural-ish Virginia over the weekend. We feasted on Jinx’s masterful barbeque from the Pit Stop in Charlottesville. (Just in case Jinx is reading this, we promise, no one put the cole slaw on the pulled pork Memphis style. They were kept strictly separate.) We drank a rootbeer keg dry and made poor showing on the wine and beer. Evidently the kids were thirsty and the adults are too old to properly attend to a keg.
We talked and feasted and toasted into the evening, and as the twilight grew dim enough to illuminate the lanterns under the canopy, the neighbor’s bootleg fireworks lit the sky. I tried to look poised and smug as though I had planned that final surprise.
Fifty years of Funk. May there be many more.
50 years of Funk commemorative baseball hat. Only 50 made. Rare.
wideeyedfunk 
How wonderful! Congratulations to Susanne and John for 50 beautiful years together, special children, and grandchildren. Their fun, creative, and gracious legacy continues on through the generations. I too wish them many more Years of Funk!
It was wonderful – it turned out to be as much a family reunion as an anniversary party!