His Dogness

In the process of congratulating me about getting married, lots of people have shared wedding stories of their own.

One editor at the paper talked about how, when he was a reporter whose beat required dropping by the courthouse regularly, he was asked to witness a number of weddings.

Hearing that we had married at the magistrate’s office, one woman said she wished that she had married at the magistrate’s office. Saying no more, she walked off.

I was surprised at the number of people who had been married by a magistrate or justice of the peace or judge.

Carolyn Sakowski and her husband, Alton, were married by a justice of the peace in Kansas.

“Beverly Sills sang at my wedding,” she said, “even if she was on the ‘Mike Douglas Show’ that was on TV in the other room at the JP’s house. After the ceremony, I got in a car with the two witnesses, and Alton went to class. He was getting his MFA then. I think the JP and his wife would have bet this one wasn’t going to
last!”

It has, in fact, lasted 32 years so far.

“And it’s still fun,” Sakowski said.

Amy McNeil said that she had to laugh at the part of the story about my marriage that has a man in handcuffs.

“My husband and I got married at the town hall in Bloomfield, NJ, which is right next to Newark,” McNeil said. “The ceremony took place in the ‘Hall of Violators.’ The judge married us there instead of in the court so we wouldn’t have an audience of ‘could-be convicts.’

“Instead, when we left the Hall, we encountered them all in the hallway because the court doors were still locked. Some could-be’s, also in handcuffs, turned around so we could see them clapping. Oddly enough, it was quite touching!”