In celebration of these five decades of wedded bliss, we have put together four web pages that bring together some facts, figures, and, of course, a few fun pictures from those days long ago when Marty & Sandy were first building their relationship. Fortunately, Sandy & Marty kept a pretty good chronological list of their “firsts”, beginning in March 1974 and continuing right through to their July 12, 1975 wedding, and their 13-day mid-July honeymoon.
If you’ve been following our three earlier webpages, you know that:
1) Marty Boller & Sandy Unrue, as music teachers in Wheeling/Buffalo Grove, Illinois, met on March 2, 1974, and over the next 11+ months, got to know each other well enough that on February 21, 1975, Marty popped The Big Question. You can read more here.
2) After Sandy gave her ‘YES’ to Marty on February 21, 1975, the young couple spent the next 4+ months preparing for their Saturday, July 12, 1975 wedding to be held at their home church – North Shore Assembly of God in Skokie, Illinois. You can read more here.
3) On Saturday, July 12, 1975, the Boller & Unrue families gathered in Skokie, Illinois to celebrate the marriage of Marty & Sandy, followed by a nice reception in Wheeling. You can read more here.
So now, we come to our fourth and final page in our 50th Anniversary Celebration Series…
Let’s pick things up in the late afternoon of Saturday, July 12, 1975. The wedding ceremony is done, the big party is over, and the guests are now scattered to the wind. The newlyweds – Marty & Sandy Boller – drive back to their apartment in Buffalo Grove. George & Dixie Boller, with Marty’s Grandma Edie, will stay the night there, while Marty’s brother, Eric and his wife, Marlene, will drive back to Iowa City. Jack & LaVonne Unrue, and Sandy’s sisters, Janice & Kristin, drive over to the apartment as well before heading home to Elkhart. After changing out of our wedding clothes, everybody sat around the pile of unopened wedding gifts while the happy couple unwrapped their treasures (see pics below).
With Eric & Marlene anxious to get on the road, and everybody starving (the reception was cake & punch only!) – Marty & Sandy load their suitcases into Eric’s car, say their fond farewells, and off they go to O’Hare Airport, where they will spend their first night as a wedded couple on the tenth floor – Room 1100 – at the O’Hare Hilton, before flying out the next morning on their honeymoon trip. BTW – Those fond farewells with parents resulted in a puddle of tears from not only the mothers and grandmothers, but Sandy also remembers that her dad, Jack, sobbed like a baby!
Well, we won’t say much about our “first” stop on the honeymoon. In all honesty, it’s none of your business, anyway! Suffice to say, that the evening of Day One had its little surprises:
Surprise #1) at 8 pm on Saturday night, many O’Hare restaurants were closed, so we had to settle for a high-priced burger and fries for our “first” meal together as a married couple…
Surprise #2) according to Sandy, Marty’s excited little boy attitude showed up later that evening in the hotel room. Mesmerized with watching all the airplanes from the 10th floor of the Hilton, (combined, we suppose, with a bit of shyness), Marty didn’t make it to bed until after 10. Well, enough Wedding Night stories, so let’s get back to the larger story…
In all honesty, Marty & Sandy’s honeymoon trip was one for the books. Thirteen beautiful days – a wedding night (July 12) at the O’Hare Hilton in Chicago, flying from Chicago (July 13) to San Francisco, from San Francisco (July 17) to Portland, Oregon, and driving to Seattle (July 18) and Victoria, British Columbia (July 21) before flying back home from Seattle to Chicago (July 24).
We mentioned earlier how it was quite unusual for Marty and Sandy – on meager teachers’ salaries – to be able to afford such an extensive trip. But credit Marty here – who is always looking for a way to make things happen – who decided, early on, that the answer would be found by simply selling one of the newly-wedded Bollers’ cars.
If you recall, in the summer of 1974, Sandy traded her green Chevy Nova (above left) for a brand-new 1974 Ford Maverick (red with a white vinyl roof – above right), and, in February 1975, Marty traded his yellow & black Chevy Nova (below left) for a brand-new, sporty 1975 Buick Skyhawk in bright orange (below right).
So, Marty’s creative solution was to simply sell Sandy’s car and use the profits to help finance the honeymoon. On paper, the idea looked fantastic, yet to this day, Sandy still wonders why the decision was to sell her car and not his. Hmmm. A good question, but suffice for now to simply know that the sale of the Ford Maverick, when combined with the generous housing gift given by Sandy’s aunt and uncle in Tacoma, Washington, made everything all come together!
As we continue on our 13-day adventure, a word about the quality of the pictures we’ve posted here. You see, on this trip in July 1975, Marty & Sandy borrowed Marty’s parents’ brand-new Polaroid X-70 (see above left). While Polaroid became well known – in the 1960’s and 70’s – for their “instant” pictures (like the ones you see here), in truth, the technique left a lot to be desired when it came to producing long-lasting colorful prints. So, as best we can, here are some of the first pics taken on the trip by the X-70…
The early morning, Day Two departure from O’Hare left us a bit sleepy on the flight to San Francisco, but by mid-day, Marty & Sandy had arrived, and after taking a cab to their hotel – The Sir Francis Drake – the couple took the opportunity to stroll around the downtown area.
Day Three highlights include a bus tour of San Francisco – which took Marty & Sandy to The Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park, a boat cruise near The Golden Gate Bridge, and a lunch-time stop at Fisherman’s Wharf.
In the evening – a tour of Chinatown (above) made the day complete before Marty & Sandy returned to their hotel via a famous San Francisco Cable Car.
So impressed with the beauty of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Marty & Sandy returned on Day Four.
Day Five included a bus tour across The Golden Gate Bridge and on into the beautiful natural wonders of Muir Woods.
Marty & Sandy were up early on Day Six, in order to catch a flight from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon. The weather was stormy, making the flight a bit scary as the plane bounced up and down on its way toward the Portland Airport runway. After a safe landing, Marty & Sandy rented a green 1973 Dodge Dart, and drove off into eastern horizon of the Hood River Valley…
The next morning – Day Seven – the fog rolled into the Hood River Valley, making Marty & Sandy’s drive up into the mountains a bit interesting.
Occasional stops for some scenic shots were nice, but when it was all said and done, Marty & Sandy did find Lost Lake, but they never discovered the much larger Mount Hood! The travel brochures and maps all said it was there, but, as you can see from Sandy’s bewildered look, we left the beautiful state of Oregon wondering “Where’s Mt. Hood?”
An afternoon drive up I-5 to Tacoma, Washington brought Marty & Sandy to our “home” away from home for the remainder of the trip. Sandy’s Uncle Jack & Aunt Millie Holm offered their home to these wayfaring travelers, and on the evening of Day Seven – one week into married life – the Unrue’s served up a delicious home-cooked meal that was topped off with a beautiful One-Week Anniversary Wedding Cake.
Day Eight was spent with Jack & Millie and their daughter, Mary, and son-in-law, Fritz Denzer, as the party took off for a full day at Mt. Rainier National Park. Sandy had made this trip a couple of times in earlier years, so it was fun for her to re-visit these beautiful sites and share them, this time, with her gawking husband, who absolutely fell in love with “The Mountain”.
Day Nine was relaxing and restful. A Sunday morning worship service with the Unrues at their Lutheran Church in Tacoma was followed by a big surprise: an absolutely beautiful sunset dinner cruise with church friends on Puget Sound.
On Day Ten, Marty & Sandy were off early, driving north to Port Angeles, Washington, where they caught a ferry to Vancouver Island and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
That evening, it was dinner at Chauney’s and then a trip into a Canadian wonderland – Butchart Gardens…
Day Eleven was packed with a double-decker bus tour of Victoria plus some downtown shopping at Murchie’s Tea and Coffee Shop before taking the ferry back to Port Angeles in the afternoon.
The long evening drive back into Seattle/Tacoma was broken up with a tasty dinner at a cozy supper club located on the water in Hoodsport, Washington.
Our final twenty-four hours in the Pacific-Northwest – Day Twelve – was packed with a bus tour of Seattle, a visit to the 1962 World’s Fair Space Needle and Monorail, and of course, a leisurely stop for lunch at The Drydock Restaurant on the wharf.
Day Thirteen – a travel day that brought the tired, but happy couple back to the Midwest – from Seattle SEA-TAC back to O’Hare in Chicago.
Thirteen Days/Twelve Nights – Four U.S. States (Illinois, California, Oregon & Washington) – One Canadian Province (British Columbia) – 5,500+ miles – One Happily-Married Couple! Indeed, a trip of a lifetime – a honeymoon filled with wonderful experiences that we vividly remember to this day.
Here’s a quick addendum to this Honeymoon – July 1975 story…
Upon Marty & Sandy’s return to Chicago on Thursday, July 24, 1975, a teacher-friend of Sandy’s – Janelle Richards – brought them back to their new apartment in Buffalo Grove. One settled, they made a big attempt to catch up with day-to-day details after being gone for almost two weeks! Duties such as: re-stocking the kitchen, doing a load or two of laundry, and paying bills all awaited the well-traveled team. On Friday, July 25, 1975, Marty decided to really go at it, hanging a bunch of glass mirror tiles in the living room, while Sandy tackled a big pile of thank you notes. Indeed, these busy beavers worked hard, because on Saturday morning, July 26, 1975, they packed their suitcases into their Buick Skyhawk, and headed eastward to Elkhart, where the Unrue family hosted yet another big wedding party for the newlywed couple.
The two pics (above left & right) were taken when Marty & Sandy opened a special “wedding present” from Sandy’s dad, Jack Unrue. Because we lived in Buffalo Grove, Jack decided to secure a very large, circular cow chip (a pile of dried-up bull-poo) from a local farmer, lacquered it, beautifully, with numerous coats of clear polish, and offered it to us as the “official” Buffalo Chip for our home in Buffalo Grove! Sadly, the Chip hasn’t survived these past 50 years, but the humor of it all has not faded!
Word has it, that upon their return from Indiana, Marty & Sandy, with the Buffalo Chip in hand, took the phone off the hook, locked the doors, and rested over the next few weeks until school started once again in late August 1975!
1975-2025 – Fifty Years – And Still Counting….
Vol. I – March 2, 1974 to February 22, 1975 – The First Dates.
Vol II – February 22, 1975 to July 11, 1975 – Planning A Wedding.
Vol III – July 12, 1975 – The Special Day.
Vol IV – July 12 – July 24 – The Honeymoon.
50 years later – in the summer of 2025 – we decided to by-pass the traditional exotic trip or big one-day party, and chose to celebrate our 50 years of marriage with a series of three smaller, family-oriented events we called our ‘Remember The 50!’ celebrations. Read more about these 50th Anniversary events here…
