Sunday, October 16, 2016

It's Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

 We Celebrated Our 10th Anniversary
On a Cruise Along the Mississippi


Maude & Bob Pych


ALONG THE MIGHTY RIVER
Our 10th Anniversary vacation—October, 2016

When people heard we were celebrating
our 10th anniversary
there was always that look of surprise—
They expected to hear it was our 50th, at least!

Bob and I became friends following the demise
of our spouses and now enjoy the sweetness
of mature love and someone across the table
during these, our golden years

We were on a long anticipated river cruise
chugging along the muddy Mississippi
from Memphis to New Orleans
aboard a brand new paddle-wheel boat
built to look like a historical old steamboat
We enjoyed spicy Cajun and Creole cuisine
and music by a different jazz band every evening

Thoughts of Tom Sawyer, Huck
and Becky sprang to mind along the brush
and coves and beyond the levees. Imagination
carried us past whitewashed fences
and old graveyards with tumble-down tombstones
inscribed with indecipherable names and dates

We visited the Civil War battlefield
at Vicksburg, Tennessee, and toured
stately plantation mansions
boasting yesteryear charm in every room
and saw former cotton fields that now grow
sugar cane since the widespread infestation
by the destructive boll weevil
We peeked inside long empty slave quarters
deep in the old south

Then we disembarked and spent a few days
in the Big Easy’s quirky French Quarter
where structures from the 1800s clearly showed their age
and where strings of gaudy beads dangled
from tree branches since Mardi Gras last spring

We took a stroll down Bourbon Street
as jazz saxes and trumpets blared
from inside the pubs
and young street musicians
banged on plastic containers and paint cans—
a constant noisy battle of the bands

We were surrounded by so much to do and see
and history so old, it made us feel young

Maude Carolan Pych




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