Of Certain Weddings and Funerals

While Barbara & I were stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and I was teaching the Army's recreation program and financial management, the crafts director for the post got married, and Barbara & I were invited. The crafts director was a young woman, and was kind of “far out,” even for those days....of the late 60's. The wedding was held in the downtown Indianapolis train station, which may not have been in active use, and also was underground. The music for the ceremony was a saxophonist. Somewhere during the music part of the ceremony, a dog - somewhere off in one of the tunnels - started howling....in keeping with the music. I'm guessing the guests made valiant efforts to keep straight faces, and when the ceremony was over, went off to the reception which featured something also unusual in the way of refreshment (chips & white wine?).

     Later, while on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Barbara became acquainted with a fellow worker at the county library whose name was Elsa Rigg. Elsa's husband, Philip, a retired minister, was from an east coast sea-faring family, and before the Second World War, took a contract to deliver a sailing vessel from the eastern Mediterranean to the east coast of this country. They encountered a storm in the Mediterranean, were de-masted. They put into the port of Gibraltar for repairs and crew replacement.

     Philip later wrote a book about the trip. He then survived the Second World War as an enlisted man in one of the services in the Pacific. Coming back, he entered - and finished - the seminary. His first assignment as a minister was with the Episcopal Church here in Mathews County, VA. His first duty in that position was to preside over a funeral. It didn't go so well....the funeral director (or one of his helpers) fell in the hole.

     Things got better after that. Philip baptized the newly born daughter of John Warren Cooke, as “Elsa” Cooke. John Warren was the son of one of Gen Robert E. Lee's aides; was the Speaker of the House of Delegates in Richmond; and probably was instrumental in avoiding Mathews County becoming the western terminus of the Bay Bridge Tunnel when it was being built. Elsa is currently the Publisher (& owner) of the Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal.

    When Philip learned that Barbara & I might be moving to Mathews County, he said "you can't do that....it's so backward over there."

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