Fifty years in (nearly) 50 couplets

Happy 50th anniversary to my parents! Last weekend we enjoyed a fabulous party with over 110 guests. The King's Strings played, Andrew and Jesse performed a song they wrote, the grandkids performed an anniversary song, and my brother shared this poem that he wrote to celebrate the occasion.

Fifty years In (Nearly) 50 Couplets

By Chad Bauman
Shared at the 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration for
Glenn and Christine Bauman

A long time back in ‘65

Mom was the prettiest gal alive

Dad himself looked rather dapper

And set off mother’s inner clapper. 

For their wedding just after New Year celebrations

They made preparations and sent invitations

To tie the knot, get hitched and marry

They were in love, after all, and didn’t tarry

Of course Uncle Sam stepped in and hurried the pace

Through a Presidential Order (the draft in this case)

They moved to Lansdale and by 1970

They had a girl who brought Joy aplenty.

She was bookish, and smart, and a musical teen

And eventually passed on the orchestral string gene

Not long after, they had another

And then that first girl got a brother.

This brother was at times a veritable punk

And made them worry their ship was sunk

He caused them more than once to frown

But eventually he settled down (and he apologizes, wherever he is.)

By ’75 they were stripping and painting their walls

Accidentally turning linoleum glue into fire balls

There were obnoxious fumes and posterior splinters

But they redid every room over 13 short winters

1980 found them hard at work

Mom at home, and as a shopping clerk

Dad worked in the office, trying hard not to bawl

When bickering kids home from school gave him call after call

But they did what it took to build a home

And a little extra, so the family could roam.

A trip out West was particularly fun

All four rafted a river; one vomited one

(…Or two, or three, or several dozen.  And there’s more to this story than can be related in polite company, so let’s just say the Grand Canyon’s forests are far more fertile now than before the Bauman’s vacationed there.)

To the country they moved around ‘85

Clearing brush, and trees, and hornet hives

They built things and fought calamitous rains

With screwdrivers, lawnmowers, shovels and drains

It may have required long hours to tend

But it was second home to family and friend

Generations came to visit and live at their place

And found it a warm, fun, and welcoming space

Around 1990 eldest went off to college

And for 8 years their cars put on superfluous mileage

Four years to Bluffton and four more to Goshen

Theirs was definitely a family in motion.

They’ve flown to Singapore, Thailand, France, Ivory Coast

Of trips to Honduras, Ireland, and Austria they boast

They’ve done some crazy things, some wild, some bold

We’ve heard some stories, but they’ll stay untold (at least tonight).

Round ’95 the grandchildren came

And their quiet lives were never the same

First just one, and then nearly a dozen

Now a full house of siblings and cousins

With the grandkids their Christmases, already lavish affairs

Turned into something resembling carnival fairs

But they didn’t care, they just drank it all in

The births and adoptions, the new kith and kin

By 2000 they surely had earned peace and quiet

But their kids put them on the renovation diet

And they were back at it again with the building and painting

And somehow did it all without whining…or fainting

And not just for children, but for friends, neighbors, strangers

Like superheroes they’ll work never minding the dangers

And they’ll do it all willingly, with pluck and good cheer

In some small way, I bet, they’ve helped everyone here

Around 2010 the time had finally come

To retire from work, and sit on their bum

Except sitting is one skill they really do lack

For this particular thing they’ve not got the knack

Instead they’re still going, like some famous bunny

And thankfully still calling each other their “honey”

And now it’s 2015, and on this very day

We celebrate 50, and gather to say

In the presence of everyone: friends, sisters, and brothers

You’ve lived a good life, for yourselves and for others

You’ve done many things, and what’s particularly clever

Is that you’ve done nearly all of them as one, together

You’ve traveled the world, raised a family and more

You’ve counseled your friends, you’ve opened your door

To people from all over, and right down the street

Your great hospitality is not easy to beat

Nor the service you’ve rendered to needy and poor

And the way others are inspired by you to do more

You’ve fed the hungry, you’ve given the thirsty relief

You’ve looked after the sick, given comfort in grief

Whatever you’ve done for the least of these

“You’ve done,” says the King in the parable, “for me”

But you’ve also done so much for all of us here

You’ve set an example, which is why we’re all here.

Happy 50^th Anniversary from your kids and grandkids, who have always been the primary beneficiaries of your love.

*Anniversary Celebration Photo Credit: Joanna Benner