The bridge leading to their first Valentine’s Day

  • My parents’ first Valentine’s Day was celebrated in 1946, 11 days after they were married in the house adjoining Ichauway Store in Baker County. Dink NeSmith had hitchhiked home from World War II to propose to Marjorie Vines. They were married for 52 years, until he died in 1998.
    My parents’ first Valentine’s Day was celebrated in 1946, 11 days after they were married in the house adjoining Ichauway Store in Baker County. Dink NeSmith had hitchhiked home from World War II to propose to Marjorie Vines. They were married for 52 years, until he died in 1998.

    With each clunk of my boots on the wooden planks of Ichawaynotchaway Creek’s Erector’s Set-like steel bridge, it was as if I had stepped back in time. I counted them. Seventy-six clunks. I closed my e…