The wisdom of age

When my brother first indicated that he intended to propose to Ricer, my parents were not enthusiastic. Although they have been dating for five years, my parents, my father especially, were concerned he was too young. They wanted him to wait a couple more years.

While Mickey stayed with me, he met some of my friends over dinner. Later, they all commented that "your brother is YOUNG." His knoweledge or lack thereof was very noticeable to my friends. We're all in our 30s, so maybe we were just as clueless as him then. Somehow though, I think not. I can't recall, but I'm sure some of his conversation revealed a lack of common sense about simple things. I think it stems from my parents coddling him too much growing up.

On our drive south, we had plenty of time to chat. One of the things we talked about was his plan for the weekend. He'd stay with the folks one night and planned to stay with Ricer and family the night before the wedding. I thought that was a bit odd but he acted like it was fine.

At the rehearsal, he learned that Ricer wouldn't let him stay with her because the groom is not supposed to see the bride before the wedding. He was surprised to learn about this tradition. Duh!

"So now where are you going to stay?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you just stay with Mom and Dad?"

"Naw, that's too far away."

"Yeah, I guess. Can you stay with either of the groomsmen?"

"Chris said his place is too messy."

"What about Abe?"

"He live over in Cbass. [probably as far, but opposite direction of parents] It's no big deal, I can just sleep in the car."

"No. No, don't sleep in the car, not the night before you're wedding okay? Someone need to know where you are."

"No really, it's not a problem."

"Well, why not just stay at the hotel then? Can you get a discount being the groom?"

"Maybe."

"How about this... you said Abe lives in Cbass. Why don't you give him a call and see if he'll split a room with you. I'm sure he would prefer that over driving a long ways as well."

"Yeah, that might work."

Thank goodness Mickey considered my idea. They decided to get a hotel room for the night. I felt much better about it. What kind of person spend $30,000 plus on a wedding and then spends the night before sleeping in a car?

Now if only he had taken my advice about changing the mailing address on the wedding registry. All their gifts are down south. How the heck are they going to pack everything into two mid-sized sedans for the drive back up? I'm guessing they're going to have to live without some of their wedding gifts until the next drive down.

He's a smart kid, just not necessarily street smart. I've always been very practical. It'll be interesting to see what wisdom comes to him during this first year of marriage. I can't imagine how different I'd be now if I had gotten married at his age.