100

This sharp dressed couple is my Mum & Dad, dancing at our wedding, back in 1976.  His white dinner jacket and her gown was as gussied-up as I had ever seen them, to that point.  They surpassed this milestone a couple of years later, when morning coats and top hats were the order of the day at my brother’s nuptials. There are some old photos that suggest they were also sharp dressers for their first few years together, but that all came to a screeching halt when I arrived on the scene, hungry and crabbit, followed four years later by my brother.  Life as they knew it changed completely, as they focused their time, some portion of their sanity, and their meager resources on us kids.    
 
My Dad would have been 100 years old today, and my Mum would have turned 99 in April.  Dad had a big weekend in 1949: his birthday fell on the Saturday, the day after he married my Mum.  They were gussied-up then too (extra).  At  29 and 28 respectively; they were a bit late to be married back in those days, but they didn’t meet until my Dad’s 8+ year “wartime” service in the Royal Artillery finally ended in 1947.   Served him right for joining the TA in ‘38 or ’39 to make a few bob extra.   He was all over: Belgium with the BEF; Dunkirk; North Africa with the 8th Army; Italy, and finally, after the war was over, Greece.  Thankfully, from my perspective, he made it home in one piece.