Our family dinner time is filled with conversation about our work and the kids’ school. Recently,
in the course of a discussion about growing up, our son suggested that our daughter, Emma,
might skip a few years and go from 10 years old straight to 22 years old. Both Emma and Cabell
seem to think missing the teenage years including high school and college would save them a lot
of hard work. At the end of their litany of all of the advantages with this leap in age Cabell
added, “And then when Emma’s 22 she can just get married.”
“Oh, no,” squealed Emma, “I’m already married.”
Frank and I were not shocked by this announcement from our 8-year-old daughter. We had heard
over previous weeks that Emma liked one of the boys in her 16 child Montessori Primary class.
She told us that she and Christopher had discussed marriage and planned a small ceremony on
the playground. Their plans for a winter wedding were thwarted by several weeks of bad
weather. Finally, on a sunny day, we heard they had tied the knot. Not only were Frank and I not
invited we had, heretofore, not been privy to any of the ceremony details.
Since the marriage topic had been reintroduced at our current dinner conversation Frank and I
took the opportunity to ply our son for details. Much to Emma’s distress Cabell proceeded with
the play by play. On this day, by his description, the class had just finished lunchtime and the
children were released out to the playground to enjoy the warm winter sunshine. Christopher,
Emma and 5 friends, including her brother, decided the weather was suitable for a wedding
under the monkey bars. Emma and Christopher stood as bride and groom and Jake was the priest.
According to Cabell there was considerable fussing about the priest role, but Gabriel conceded
the part to Jake when Gabriel was allowed to serve as chair and bookholder, a position that
Cabell had to physically demonstrate during his telling of the story. Cabell and his best friends
completed the wedding group and served as 2 policemen and a bad guy. The 2 policemen
prevented the bad guy from disrupting the wedding by chasing him about the playground. Cabell
could not provide any further details about the vows exchanged since his policeman duties took
him away from direct observation of the remainder of the ceremony.
This account of Emma’s wedding reminded me that I also got married in third grade. My 8-year-
old wedding occurred after lunch on the playground and under the monkey bars. There must be
something especially romantic about a sunny playground and a full tummy. I had 3 boyfriends
around that time, Paul Daniels, Howard Garrison, and Marty Godwin. I have to say that I can’t
rightly remember which of them served as groom. I married for real when I was 22 years old and
it wasn’t to any of those three fine boys.
Emma does not wear a ring and is otherwise mum about her commitment to Christopher. She
does declare that the best things about her marriage are that she can continue to live at home with
her parents and that she can sleep alone in her own bed. Frank and I are also pleased with this
arrangement. I’m looking forward to those teenage years when Emma will work her way through
high school and, hopefully, college. Surely her idea of the perfect marriage will change and then
we’ll see who’s waiting under the monkey bars.