60 Years Together by Aharleygyrl

Bryce and Felda Parks of Crofton were married on April 27, 1947, and recently renewed their vows during their 60th wedding anniversary celebration at the home of Shawne and Adrian McGibbon of Glenn Dale.

Officiating the ceremony was the Rev. LaJuana Caldwell, of Bowie. Her father, who is now deceased, was Mr. Parks' best man in 1947. Following the ceremony, family and friends presented one testimonial after another about how Mr. and Mrs. Parks have made a difference in the lives of others.

Mrs. Parks was born and raised in Denver, Colo., and worked as a librarian for 10 years at the University of Denver. Shortly after the couple moved to Maryland in 1975, Mrs. Parks became the circulation supervisor at the Crofton library until her retirement in 1988.

Mr. Parks was born on a farm in western Kansas in the 1920s. His family moved to Denver when he was in the 7th grade. He said that he remembered seeing Felda just once in junior high school.

"We also went to high school together, but didn't know each other well," Mrs. Parks said.

It wasn't until they both attended the University of Denver that they became better acquainted, but then Mr. Parks was called to serve three years in the Air Force during World War II. He was a candidate with the Tuskegee Airman, but didn't make the squadron and became a land surveyor instead.

"I wrote Felda and told her that if she couldn't write, just put me down as MIA," said Mr. Parks noting that she never did write him back. Somehow they managed to find each other again.

Mrs. Parks remembers the marriage proposal, of sorts, made by Mr. Parks after a day of skiing at Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. While sitting in a car, Mr. Parks took that leap of faith by asking, "Should I order this car or should we get married?" Apparently, he was a little confused as to which one he wanted more - a new car or a wife.

"I must have said yes, because look at us now," said Mrs. Parks, who said they were married at her mom's house. But she didn't remember much about the reception at her mother-in-law's house or the brief honeymoon that followed.

For their 10th anniversary, Mr. Parks surprised his wife with a trip to Acapulco. On their 25th anniversary, they packed up the kids and headed to Mexico for a camping trip. Their 50th anniversary was spent alone on the Eastern Shore.

Mrs. McGibbon, a longtime family friend took care of all the arrangements for the 60th wedding anniversary celebration that included invitations to 100 family and friends, engraved champagne glasses, a wedding cake, catered meal, cocktails, music, and the required wedding decor to give the event that final touch of elegance. Mrs. McGibbon's father, John Carter, and Mr. Parks were ski buddies who had known each other since high school. Mr. Carter was a dentist in New York and passed away in 1976.

Mr. Parks was one of the first African American members of the National Ski Patrol in Denver. He received a Purple Merit Star from the Red Cross for saving the life of a skier after an avalanche in 1957. He moved to Crofton and worked for Bechtel Corp. as a safety engineer during the construction of Metro until his retirement in 1988. His uncle, Gordon Parks, who passed away just over a year ago, was a groundbreaking African-American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director. He is best remembered for his photo essays for Life magazine and as the director of the 1971 film "Shaft."

Mr. & Mrs. Parks helped form the Slippers and Sliders Ski Club and the Denver chapter of Jack and Jill of America, a group that enhances the development of children socially, culturally and educationally. Both groups are still in existence today.

Their three children, Toni Parks and Bryce Parks, Jr. both of San Francisco and Beryl Parks of Pfafftown, N.C.. attended the celebration and spoke about how lucky they are to have come from such a loving household with great parents.

"After we were married, we didn't have children for four years, which I think helps build a marriage," said Mrs. Parks who also said that commitment and having hobbies in common keeps a marriage strong.

Mattie Springfield, a transplant from Denver who currently lives in Bethesda, has known the couple since 1962 when she and Mrs. Parks were roommates after they both gave birth to their kids at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Denver.

Standish and Gail Brooks, Tony and Corinne Stripling, Tom and Marge Guinard, Dick and Terri Ray, Mike Garner, and Gary Whitmore spoke highly of their Crofton friends and neighbor.

Two months ago, Mrs. Parks fell and fractured a vertebra in her neck. She is well on the road to recovery and plans to get back to fishing and traveling with their motor home group soon.

If you are wild about playing Bingo, mark your calendar for Sunday. Crofton resident and cancer survivor, Daryl Brown and his West Anne Arundel County Relay for Life team will sponsor "Bingo for the Cure," a community event at the Gambrills Athletic Club on McKnew Road. The $20 per person donation will benefit the American Cancer Society. Doors open at noon, first game at 1 p.m. with 20 games and 3 specials to be called. There will be food, a plant wheel and a 50/50 raffle. For more information, contact Linda Phipps at 410-827-8156 or e-mail lphippsfamily@yahoo.com.

Marriage in the News: Eloping Again, 60 Years Later

In 1947, a young woman named working at the Phoenix Theater in Arizona dropped six bags of popcorn when a man named Tom Abbot walked in the front door. Though she already had a boyfriend, she knew she loved Tom a great deal. Three months after they started dating, they eloped to another town so that her mother wouldn't see the marriage license in the newspaper.

60 years later, they celebrated their anniversary by returning to the courthouse they eloped to and renewing their vows. Considering the fact that she was 17 and he was 20 in 1947, the chances of such a marriage surviving today are pretty slim. They barely knew each other, can you imagine getting married to someone you'd only known three months?

They made commitment and love their number 1 priority. Divorce was not a word that entered into their dictionary. Tom told her and their guests that he didn't measure success by where they lived or what they had:

Together, the couple have four children, sixteen grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. They kept their marriage a secret at first, intending to only tell her parents after she turned 18. Virginia spilled the news when she heard her parents commenting on their neighbor's choice for marriage. When Virginia blurted out the news that she was married.

Her family finally decided to leave the young couple alone, figuring they wouldn't last six months. Sixty years later - wow. It's stories like this that remind us we can make our marriages work, we focus on the love, the commitment and we don't give ourselves an easy out.

No, not all marriages work out and sometimes, you can't help it. But other marriages do and those marriages should inspire us. So a toast to Tom and Virginia and their 60 years of love, commitment and family.

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They kept no secrets from each other -- except that the old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totaling $25,000.

"When we were to be married," she said, explaining the contents of the box, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily."

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving! He almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies.

"When we were first married we came to an agreement. I would make all the major decisions and my wife would make all of the minor decisions. And in 60 years of marriage we have never needed to make a *major* decision."