It’s Heartwarming To Know This Is Where I Come From — My Parents’ 50th Anniversary

I would like to introduce you to two amazing people ... Karen and Don, even though I call them Mom and Pop.  Two unique individuals, because in a world of mail order divorces and Facebook lawyers on every corner, they are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary! Let me tell you about it...

Mom and Pop got married way back on Aug. 5, 1961, after a long high school courtship, and they settled in their hometown of Haven, Kan., where they started their small family -- until they relocated to Oklahoma, then slid down here to SWLA (which I call God's country), where they planted their roots and become Southerners!

They raised three fine boys and spent their lives on a roller-coaster of family and love, raising us in their way, which worked great when you consider the outcomes and achievements of my brothers and I! After years of keeping their noses to the grindstone (and after the ankle biters had moved out to start their clans), they both retired and spent the following years fulfilling their dreams of wander-lust, visiting every corner of these United States. And they never left each other's side.

This is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and they have been celebrating every day, all year. The party started in Disney World in Orlando, and then they traveled for more than three months in Maine and New England, feasting on lobster and other Yankee treats -- with several trips back home to the South for seasonings! And their trip will wrap up in a few weeks when they return once again to Orlando and the Magic Kingdom.

True love can't be painted on a canvas or written in a book. It can't be filmed and then shown on a big screen, then put on DVD's to watch when there is nothing else on during a Sunday Afternoon ... but it can be lived. It can be lived everyday, and just like a prize-winning rose, it will continue to grow more buds and expand itself outward until that rosebush covers the front fence of the house that built me. I'm the man that I am because of the foundation that these two wonderful, wonderful people gave me, and I am proud to say Thank you Mom and Pop, and congratulations on your golden 50th wedding anniversary -- and also, happy birthday, Pop!