Tradition!

My sincere apologies for not posting a Friday Poem or a Sunday Drive this weekend. The Stan clan were required to attend a wedding that I'd completely forgotten about - until Mrs Stan reminded me late on Friday afternoon. As the wedding was in the north of England, this required a quick dash home followed by a slow crawl up the motorway and a weekend away from home and computer. It was actually rather nice - both the wedding and being away from the computer. Circumstances permitting, both the Friday Poem and Sunday Drive will back this week

There were several things about this wedding that struck me as unusual in this day and age. First of all, the age of the couple - he being 23 and she being 22 - would make them considerably younger than most of the brides and grooms at weddings I've attended over the last few years. Usually they are in their early thirties and often older - and more often than not it is not the first marriage for one or other of them (or even both).

Also rather unusual in our modern times was the way this couple had gone about the wedding. They have not lived together before hand, but were both living at home with their parents. They've bought their first home together which they have spent some time getting ready for them to move into after the honeymoon - with considerable help from both families. In fact, there is still some work needing to be done which the bride's father - my old neighbour and a plumber by trade - is finishing off while they are away.

Another thing that was unusual about this wedding was the setting, a village church, bucking the trend for modish weddings in off the wall locations. Last year I had to decline a wedding invitation as there was no way I was going to fork out around £3000 to get Mrs Stan and me to Cuba for a weekend! For me, there is nothing to beat a church wedding. It was not just any village church, either - it was THEIR village church which they both attend regularly (much more so than I attend mine, it has to be said).

It was, in fact, a very traditional wedding all round, but without the formality of the morning suit which has become commonplace these days - and a traditional reception and send off for the happy couple as they set off for their hotel prior to making their way to Scotland for the honeymoon. I wish them both the best of luck in their life together. Somehow, I don't think they will need it as they are both remarkably well grounded individuals. probably due to their traditional working class upbringing.

It's a funny thing, tradition. In our post-modern world it seems that the emphasis is always on bucking tradition - often with change for change sake. It's a liberal progressive dogma to remove tradition which is often seen as a barrier to progress, but the fact is that a tradition is usually a tradition for a reason. And more often than not it is because people like it and it works.