One of these just doesn't belong here. One of these things is not the same...

[Ben E Lou]

I just ran across this pic. I find it rather humorous, and a little surprising where I found it.

http://www.theravenels.com/images/sims_wedding.jpg

[Ben E Lou]

Counterpoint :p

http://www.benelou.com/images/images/My%20Pictures00030008.jpg

[QuikSand]

No joke. You just can't go out the door wearing the blue oxford and tie combo -- sore thumb time there.

[Butter]

Now it's time to play our game... it's time to play our game!

That boy on the side of the 2nd picture is wearing a striped shirt. He must not have gotten the memo!

[Klinglerware]

No joke. You just can't go out the door wearing the blue oxford and tie combo -- sore thumb time there.

Yep, a couple of guys in those two pictures are still living in the early 90s...

[sachmo71]

rocky road?

[dixieflatline]

I'm thinking it's the little kid with the white tux in front. Everyone knows not to wear white after labor day.

[colt45]

I say it's the lady in the first picture holding the drink, looking drunk. She's ready for the pictures to be taken where folks are wearing lampshades on their heads. It's a party, ya'll!

[Ben E Lou]

I'm thinking it's the little kid with the white tux in front. Everyone knows not to wear white after labor day.I can't remember for sure at what time of year the first pic was taken, although I think it was early summer. The second one was taken in early February.

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

Is it only coincidendce that the second picture was taken on Urban Street?

[Ben E Lou]

Is it only coincidendce that the second picture was taken on Urban Street?That's Urban Avenue, the "hub" of East Urban Heights. Dat's where it all started, with DJKL and Ben E Lou writin' rhymes in da hizouse, and kickin' 'em right there on the street corner for the boyz from our h-double-o-d.

[VPI97]

SkyDog - 'Excuse me while I whip this out'
Grandma Ravenel - 'Aaaaahhh!!!!' runs away covering her eyes

[Ben E Lou]

SkyDog - 'Excuse me while I whip this out'
Grandma Ravenel - 'Aaaaahhh!!!!' runs away covering her eyesWell, all four grandmas were dead before SWMBO and I met, a fact which, all things considered, I'm pretty darned thankful for. :p

[sovereignstar]

http://the-dkbl.com/sims_wedding.jpg

:)

[RedKingGold]

Wait a minute.......Skydog is black????

[Anthony]

no - he just tans very easily.

[Crapshoot]

So Ben, why are you off to the side in the first picture, hidden behind the scary aunts ? :D

[Crapshoot]

Dola,
in the second pic, everyone is smiling, except the guy in the grey blazer - who looks like he wants to kick someone's ass. :D

[colt45]

a la Blazing Saddles:
Guy in grey blazer - "Where all the white women at?"

[Ben E Lou]

Dola,
in the second pic, everyone is smiling, except the guy in the grey blazer - who looks like he wants to kick someone's ass. :D:D That's my brother-in-law. He's a very gentle and kind guy, great to my sister, neice and nephew and all that, but he doesn't smile very often, either. He's a very serious guy. You're right though. I hadn't really noticed it in that pic, but he does look ready to tho' down.

[Neon_Chaos]

Yep first thing I noticed was the only African American dude at the back. :)

[jbmagic]

a la Blazing Saddles:
Guy in grey blazer - "Where all the white women at?"


there is one in the 2nd pic :)

[Airhog]

Wait a minute.......Skydog is black????

He isnt called the HNIC fo nothing

[Tasan]

Hard Nosed Ink Catcher?

[Raven]

In the first pic, the kid in the bottom left has obviously spotted something and looks like he is about to tear off ASAP. It looks like the kid with the tie is holding him back by the shirt.


Reminds me of a dog when he spots a cat.

[Neon_Chaos]

Why does SkyDog look like Al Roker? :)

[stevew]

Did people in the family give you a bunch of crap when y'all got married? People not showing up, etc? What was the reception like? Just seems like the whole situation could be stressful, or maybe not.

[Ben E Lou]

Did people in the family give you a bunch of crap when y'all got married? People not showing up, etc? What was the reception like? Just seems like the whole situation could be stressful, or maybe not.The whole thing was beyond bizarre, actually. It would take forever to explain the entire family dynamic on both sides. There were some interesting twists and turns to the whole situation, but it wasn't stressful for me at all. It was somewhat stressful for SWMBO. (It is *extremely* difficult to stress me out, so don't read too much into that.) Here is the shortest version I can come up with to give a good picture...



Her family members, like many southern blue-blood type families, strongly believe in sticking together us-against-the-world no matter what, which conflicted with the fact that....
SWMBO's mom, who married into the family, was raised in a very, very racist family. (Again, thankfully her parents were already dead, or it would have been more complex.) This led to...
SWMBO's dad, a very logic-non-emotionally-oriented man (he and I are very much alike with the exception of one key difference which will be mentioned in a moment) to be put in a pretty tough quandary. Ultimately, it wasn't what he would have first chosen for her, but he could have been fine with it on his own, and again, would have stood with the family. However, with his wife freaking out, and him (this is where he and I are very different) being very timid when it comes to confronting loved ones when they're out of line, he decided to try to come up with a logical exegetical argument against interracial marriage. (This is where it got bizarre.) Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that he HAD to convince himself that what we were doing was wrong in order to live with his wife's refusal to accept the situation.
My Columbus-based immediate and extended family was fine with it. My younger brother had dated a white girl way back in high school, so my mom had already dealt with this, and she would have been the one to have the most issues with it. My Chicago-based extended family had major problems with it, as we had all expected. I don't know them very well and don't particularly care what they think anyway. (We all know how much the opinion of yankees matters to me.... ;))
SWMBO moved to the Atlanta area after we'd been dating long distance for two years, because we wanted to do everything to be sure that her folks couldn't perceive us as rushing into anything. We lived around 5 miles apart for several months before getting married. On the weekend that she moved, I went to see her dad. I wasn't going to ask for his permission, but I did let him know that, "If everything goes well after she moves, you need to know that it is my intention to ask her to marry me, and I would like for you to reconsider whether you can give us your blessing and give her away at the wedding." He said that he couldn't, and then he asked to pray with me. He took my hands and we both prayed for several minutes. (I told you this was bizarre...)
The issue came close to dividing her family shortly before the wedding. Her dad's siblings and her brother all were planning on coming, and there was just no way her dad could have left his wife and come (a stance I agreed with, given the circumstances). This of course was going to make him look pretty bad in front of his family. It all came to a head a few weeks before the wedding. Her dad's aunt, the last living member of the generation above him, was planning on coming to the wedding, and had her 80th birthday party in NC the weekend before our wedding. SWMBO was sent an invitation to the party, plus a hand-written note from the family member throwing it that they really wanted her to come and to bring me, as very few of the extended family had met me yet. We decided that we should go. This of course really threw SWMBO's dad for a loop. We were coming to a big family event right in his neck of the woods, and he was fairly certain that his wife wouldn't come if we were there. He basically begged us not to come, saying that a "public" party wasn't the proper place for us to all be at since we'd only met twice and hadn't worked everything out yet. SWMBO responded properly, saying something along the lines of, "You know what, you're dead right. This party isn't the time. Ben and I have dated for over 2 1/2 years. We would have gotten married at least a year ago, but we wanted to give y'all more time. We've been ready to move on and be a family for a long time. We were sent an invitation with a hand-written request to come. We're coming, and we'd love for y'all to come, too." Well, the fact that we drove all the way up for the weekend and they didn't come from a few miles away really set the entire extended family solidly on our side. (Her dad's sister, upon arriving at the party and being told that her brother and his wife weren't coming to the party, said in her most aristocratic southern accent, "That's just wholly inappropriate and completely shameful.")
So, the wedding was just fine. Several extended family members were there. Her mom and dad weren't. They called on the morning of the wedding to let her know that they were praying for us and still wanted to have a relationship. We didn't really know what that meant until....
Three weeks after the wedding, they called us up and asked us to come up for a weekend. (Now, at this point, I'd met her mom only twice, both times at "let's-discuss-this" meetings...) We figured that it would either be really awkward, or that they were ready to apologize. Well, neither happened. We walked in the house. They hugged us both. (Yeah, her mom hugged me.) We went into the den and sat down and shared shrimp cocktails, a glass of wine, and the whole 2 1/2+ years between the time we met and the time we got married HAS NOT BEEN DISCUSSED SINCE. :eek: They took us on an all-expense paid vacation to the Lake Louise area of Canada (that's the pic that people thought looked photoshopped) for our first Christmas as a married couple, and we have a good relationship now. Both of her parents seem comfortable asking me questions regarding race-related issues, even though my answers aren't always what they want to hear.
Like I said, it is beyond bizarre. The bottom line is this, though: other than her mom and dad, we've had only one incident/confrontation that was interracial related--and that one was more humorous than anything else.

Here's a pic of my mom and SWMBO's aunt (her dad's sister) shortly after the wedding. They both look happy to me. ;)

http://www.benelou.com/images/images/My%20Pictures00030011.jpg

[Neon_Chaos]

That just goes to show that for all the bad things we read and hear in the news about racism and all that negativity, there are SANE people in this world, who actually understand that color isn't, and shouldn't be a major issue anymore. Good to hear everything's worked out for you nicely, SD.

p.s. I still think you look like Al Roker. :)