Nearly four decades ago – on August 7, 1982 – Gary and I got married.

We’d met 18 months prior. I was a reporter, he was a local farmer fighting the federal government to save his land. My first words to my future husband:

What the hell’s a watershed?

Gary’s animated response won me over, and I’ve never tired of his stories in all these years.

We met in February of 1981. Gary popped the question in December. We planned our wedding date between planting and harvest.

That (relatively) long hair on Gary? It was sort of his wedding present to me. Within a week he was back at the barbershop: Two on top, one on the sides.

And my present to him? City mouse sang a Don Williams song to my country mouse.

I think my favorite wedding photos are the ones we took over at the farm before the wedding. I was already giving Gary a hard time for taking a nap the morning of our wedding. Who does that?!

With moo cows in the background and Gary under the ancient Pecan Tree, we laughed when a friendly beagle photobombed us.

This next photo wasn’t posed.

Our photographer caught Gary and my dad taking a look at the cornfield.

Rather than a traditional wedding-cake topper, we used the city mouse (bride) and county mouse (farmer) from the collection my mom assembled for me over the years.

So many years later, I wouldn’t change a thing. As I sang to Gary all those years ago, “… love has kept us together, for the flame never dies. When I look in your eyes, all the future I see.”

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