The Old Truck We Drove to Every Wedding

My family owns a 1967 Ford pickup truck that has been used in every family wedding since my grandparents' in 1968. It's painted robin's egg blue, it doesn't have air conditioning and it only goes about forty miles an hour.

My parents left their wedding in it. My aunt and uncle left their wedding in it. My cousin and her wife left their wedding in it, with tin cans tied to the back bumper. This summer, my husband and I left our wedding in it.

My grandfather, who is ninety, drove us. He wore his old suit and a flower in his lapel. He honked the horn the whole way down the gravel road, and everybody waved and cheered as we went by.

At the end of the road, he pulled over, turned around and said, "Welcome to the family truck." Best ride of my life.