The earlier you

The last couple of weeks I've been thinking about having some sort of gathering where all your friends bring their wedding pictures. First marriage if that applies. I'd like to see everybody with all the hair replaced on heads and weight unreplaced on bodies.

I believe this stems from the fact that I have incomplete memories of so many friends. I didn't go to high school with them or most of the time even college. I'd like to see how they looked back in the day. I feel like I'm missing a part of who they are.

I began thinking about this when I stayed at a friend's house, and the wedding pics were on the wall. The couple looked so different from the 50something grandma and grandpa that I know. I think I feel like I've got no better handle on the people they were than their kids and grandkids do. And we do share the same time if not the same geography.

I also recently tried to describe my wedding attire to a friend and she tried to describe hers to me. And her sister's because my friend was maid of honor for her sister. It turned out that both being Northern Illinois girls our finery came from the same place. New Glarus, Wisconsin--the place to go at the time for material, etc. if you were making your dress, and accessories if you were not. All of mine came from there. Her sister's as well. Including the maid of honor dress.

Today if these people got married, I'd be at the wedding. But we were strangers then. I want this glimpse of these friends of mine, married now almost as long as I have been. I love to get out my pictures because my husband looks about 12. And nobody sees that guy anymore. I want to see the guy/the gal that they married in the same way. Because we all were not born old and fat despite what our children think.

So if I can think of a reasonable way of doing this, I'll let you know. It intrigues me.