You had toyed with the idea before, but were never really serious. You would lie on the floor next to Sam in his bedroom. He would play records for you that he found at garage sales and showed you his drawings from the week's phone calls. You would smoke cigarettes out of those long cigarette holders á là Audrey Hepburn. You told him he was brilliant and that once he graduated he would be famous. Your were sure he would forget you in his celebrity, would meet fabulous people and would leave you by the side of the road, alone.
No, he'd say. Never, not you. You played with the idea of marriage. Why
not a shotgun wedding in some drive-through
chapel? You could make a road trip out of it down Route 66 and see
how many times you could get married, in how many states.
With all intents and purposes, you seriously considered this. Why not this summer, before the entire ordeal of getting a job and having bills kick in? What would you say? |
19 percent: The share of 21 year olds who are married, according to American Demographics .
That's a small and declining figure compared to the number of baby boomers that were married at that age. I have one friend that married after college. Weeks after the ceremony she pulled her license from her wallet for our small circle of friends to see. We all stared wide-eyed as it displayed evidence of her new status: married. I would now have to relocate her from “W” to “D” in my address book. Did anything really change, though? There's usually documentation, sometimes a celebration, sometimes a drunken stupor and sometimes it even involves fancy clothes.
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