1959 Wedding

/ CynthiaEDay

I saw my parents’ wedding photos before I’d ever been to a wedding. I was so young that their wedding was less than ten years in the past (by the time I saw the photos) but I interpreted them as having been taken a hundred years ago. They’re in black and white! All the other photos I’d ever seen were in color.

Let’s take a look at these puppies.

The bride:

Elizabeth Hathaway Dunbar

This is the first time I remember seeing my mom without glasses. And I approved. But I didn’t recognize her as the same person. 🤓

Always wondered what that woman on the left was doing and why she was even in the picture. And why the gloves?
Once again was never sure what was going on in the photo. Is my mother attaching a flower to my grandmother’s dress? My grandmother always wore plain, plain dresses and this one was shiny. I wished she would dress like that more often.
Why is my mom busy helping dress her parents when she’s the one getting married? Why does my grandfather not dress like that all the time? Duncan Dunbar was his name.
Now here are people I knew and loved: Aunt Phyllis (married to Richard Day) and Susie Day. My great grandfather, Grandpa Keeney, in the background, was gone by the time I was old enough to remember him.
I did recognize the second bridesmaid but didn’t know her well. She and I shared the same name. She passed away right before my father did.
Always loved this pic and wanted to get chosen to be a flower girl someday but I didn’t have a dress that fancy or hair that curly so wasn’t sure I could pull it off. Never aspired to be a bride though. That whole scene looked really awkward.

Everything about this scene looked nerve-racking to me. That it’s in black and white makes it more ominous.

1950’s vibes

Above is essentially the first and almost last time you see my father’s side of the family.

And finally you can really see the groom, Thomas Blake Day. I remember looking at the flowers and wishing church always had flowers. Church was a scary place to me.

They look marvelous.

Great pic of them both.

Where are they going? I always sort of wondered.

I never understood why this kid is seeming to take a confrontational stance with the bride’s maids. And who is he?

Why are all these guys kissing my mom? Ew. If you have to get kissed in public in a fancy dress, forget it. Ew.

I always wondered why my dad was yelling at this kid. Also, again, who is that kid?

Last time my uncles show up in a picture of this wedding. (They’re the two guys next to my dad. Richard Keeney Day and Robert Blake Day).
Lovely.
This pic always confused me. Is that guy flirting with my mom? Why is she striking that pose? That’s my grandmother on the right.

Always thought cutting cake in gloves indoors was an odd choice.

A kid who got cake of her white gloves would have been chastised.

Cake seemed to me like a good enough reason to go through the struggle of a wedding.

This made sense to me because my grandfather was a caterer and I knew that meant serving food. Plus my dad’s father always wore suits. Robert Blake Day of Robert Day Deans catering of New York City.

Always wondered where my dad was going.

Rare glimpse of my dad’s mother to right of bride.

Do people even have receiving lines anymore? In many ways it’s a nice tradition but I can see why it faded away.

As a kid I always thought this business of everyone standing around shaking hands looked unnerving. What are they talking about?

It’s a cute pic of my mom and I wondered what the woman had said to her to prompt that expression.

There was something about the black and white that always made this seem like a silent movie from a century ago.

I wondered if my mom was getting reprimanded by her mom. Could she have done something wrong? That’s one of my mom’s brothers (Wallace Dunbar) in the background. I don’t see the other two brothers in any of the pictures. (Their names were Duncan Dunbar, Jr. and Randolph Dunbar).

My grandfathers know each other? The two men were so different. What could they be talking about? Next time I saw them together was at my piano recital in about 1968. That was the last time.

When I was young I didn’t really see my dad smile a lot. He scowled. But then later on he seemed to loosen up. Then went back to scowling.

Here they are with both sets of parents. This is the only full on photo of my dad’s mom, Beatrice Keeney Day. Why does mother of the groom get short shrift?

Someone had to explain this to me. It looked dangerous and spooky to me. Also, first we’re in church and then we move into superstitions! 👀

I always wondered, Who would my grandmother need to be calling? Marion (Evans) Eaton Dunbar. She had been a librarian and I wondered if she needed to call the library. 🤷‍♀️
But why today? Why during a wedding?
And I guess you were allowed to take off your gloves to use the rotary dial on the phone.

This was one of the few pics that seemed true to life. A kid playing around away from the grown ups made sense. No pretense. Don’t know if my grandfather was in charge or just cruising by.

And there they go. Looking a little more “real” but still dressed up. And my mom still doesn’t have her glasses on. 🤓

Well that was a fun trip down memory lane.

Sixty-six years ago.

Of course now I see that the photographer was talented and was capturing the scenes in the tried and true methods. I get it. But as a kid I had no context. Weddings are play-acting, following traditions. This photo album was someone’s job.

And it was well done. 👏

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