Well, she’s married now, this youngest girl of mine,
But until we got her married we really had a time.
When she said she wanted to be married, I said it couldn’t be done,
She’d never get my consent until she was twenty-one.
But, at nineteen they have a way, and very very soon
She had me saying I’d give in if she would wait ’till June.
Well then we go into the war, and they said they couldn’t wait,
He might have to join the Army and June would be too late.
They were determined to have each other before he went away,
I knew they’d do it no matter what I’d say.
All their friends were doing it, so I thought I’d have to let them do it too,
I said “Give me just a month, and I’ll try and see it through”.
Well, that was January 31st, and they very quickly set the date
Said they’d be married then on February 28th.
Then he goes to his draft board to find out what they’d have to say,
And they upset their plans once more in a great big way.
For they said “Oh you’ll most likely hear from us in a week or two,
Well, they were so excited then they didn’t know what to do —
And their next decision sort of knocked me off my feet,
For they said “Mother, we’ll be married on Thursday of next week”.
Now I never was the kind of person that liked to do things in a hurry,
To get ready for a wedding in a week sure set me in a flurry.
Getting a license in my day was just no trick at all,
You’d apply for them, and get them, and the fee was very small.
But getting a license in this day seems quite another thing,
For if you’re not of age — the whole family you must bring.
They delve into your future, and they delve into your past,
There isn’t any end to the questions they can ask.
You have to have a blood test, and you have to wait five days,
So they can check what you said in a dozen different ways.
You not only have to be of age, you have to look the part,
Or you don’t get the license to wed the treasure of your heart.
We promised to meet our daughter at the court house on Saturday before noon,
And I got there around eleven and found her alone and filled with gloom.
“Mother, we forgot our blood tests, we have to get our license today,
Because Thursday of next week is just five days away”.
“Ray’s gone out to see if he can find them in my desk,
It’s my fault — I forgot them and got us in this mess.
I hope that he can find them and he gets back on time,
That he doesn’t get arrested for speeding and we have to pay a fine”.
I said “Calm yourself, my dear, we’ll just have to wait,
If I know him he’ll get back before it is too late”.
And he did got back Just in time, and the waiting wasn’t bad,
For while we waited I knew all the troubles other people had.
Those five days just flew away, and the wedding day was here,
I won’t forget that day, if I live to be a hundred years.
At nine in the morning the telephone rings, and with tears and blowing of her nose,
I heard “Mother, we forget, it’s Lincoln’s birthday, and the courthouse is closed.
How are we going to get our license — what are we going to do ?
Why I’ll be a nervous wreck before this day is through”.
And if she thought she was a nervous wreck, she should have looked at me,
For I was just as flabbergasted as anyone could be.
And I started calling attorney, the minister, and I called the florist, too,
I said “You’ll have to wait to decorate until I see what we can do”.
Then the florist called me back, he said “Are you Republicans or Democrats?
You just get the political boss in your ward and he’ll take care of that”.
But instead I called the minister, and I said “Isn’t there some way
You could marry my daughter tonight and sign her license another day” ?
Well, he said he’d like to do it, but he thought there was a law against that,
But he’d look into it and then he would call me back.
When he called me back he said, “I don’t want to seem unkind,
But do you know that if I marry your daughter without a license I’m liable to
six months in jail and a thousand dollar fine” ?
I said “That will never do, we’ll have to find some other way,
And if she doesn’t get her license she can’t be married today.
Then the telephone rang once more; my daughter said “Mother, everything’s all right
We’ve found a nice judge who’s going to meet us at the court house til 5:30 tonight”
But I wasn’t sure ’till seven that the wedding could go on,
And by that time I must admit my nerves were almost gone.
Well, 8:30 was the time set, and the time was close al hand,
So I told all the guests to gather in the living room and, of course, they’d have to stand.
So fifty people crowded in my living room, in every nook mid cornel they could use,
And bang! Out goes the lights, something blew a fuse.
We had another blackout before we found out what the trouble was,
Someone’s feet were tangled in the lamp cord that had been the cause.
We put the two burned out fuses in the pocket of the groom,
So he wouldn’t forget the blackouts on his wedding night so very soon.
Then we lighted all the candles, and the ceremony went on without any more regrets,
But the trials of her wedding day I never shall forget.
And now that It Is over, nil I have to say
Is, “I do hope her married life won’t lie as rocky as was her wedding day”.
