1952

Charlie Blakemore, author, actor, advertising impressario, and Mexico City resident, is the former proprietor of this column. He tells us about "The Wedding of the Decade."

"It is seldom you hear of a wedding in which one of the couple is a classmate of such ancient relics as we. But I bear living testament to such an event and help you feel and believe that it can be—it was—as moving, joyful, inspiring as any in which we may have been involved four decades ago.

"The wedding was held in the only Episcopal church in one of the most charming old towns in the western hemisphere, San Miguel De Allende, a 16th century mining town in the hills north of Mexico City. There, on July 22, James"Brad" Leiter and Amada quino Nagano were married.

"The bride was dazzling in her loose ankle-length dress with the traditional Mexican braid of bright colored cloth in her onyx hair and the groom still handsome in his beige linen suit. The service was inspiring. The scripture passage and sermon were delivered by a psychiatrist friend of the groom who was recently ordained as an Episcopal priest. He spoke of the dark night of divorce through which the partners had passed into the glorious sunshine of these joyous nuptials. It brought a moistness to the cheeks of your lonely correspondent.

"The reception and dinner were held in the garden of a nearby hotel, the resurrection and modernization of a 16th-century mining lord's hacienda, lush with purple jacaranda, beside a swimming pool.

"Brud and his bride live in Morelia, Michoacan State, to which Brud moved five years ago to start a business exporting decorative figurines, toys, and other artifacts made by Mexican artisans to stores in the U.S. It is an area of verdant mountains much like the green of Vermont and the white of New Hampshire.

"During the course of a delicious dinner,. Brud's brother gave a fine toast. Immodestly I must report that one of the highlights was my gift to the bride of a picture of Brud from the 1952 Freshman Green Book blown up to frameable size.The 1948 twinkle in the eye is still there, as is the hair, somewhat whiter, but still as thick, which is, alas, more than the correspondent can say of his own.

"It was a delightful wedding, and the light of love and joy in the eyes of the bride and groom as they passed among the guests restored, in this old cynic, the belief that, yes, there can be happiness in marriage." Thanks, Charlie.

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