The day would be August 30th, 1981. Linda had arranged for everything (she's definitely the one for details). We were to married at her parent's house in San Carlos, CA. The ceremony would take place under the stately Oak tree in their yard. A beautiful setting.
Turk was our best man, and I had my three children (Lisa 13, Penny 11, and Tim 8) flown in from Coffeeville, Kansas to be part of the wedding. Linda's best friend, Marianne Pinelli, was the maid of honor. It was a beautiful day, with over 80 folks attending.
Our minister was pastor Joe Schrul from the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Montclair. Don Neely's Royal Society Orchestra would be playing for the party afterwards.
Well, now you have the perfect scenario... What could possibly go wrong? Let me set this up further, with a bit of information about a group called the Lato Mob, which were regular guests at Earthquake McGoons. This was a group of Bay Area folks that pretty much lived their lives as if they were still in the 1920's. They dressed the part, drove vintage cars, and tipped as though they were still living back there (they didn't). Linda and the rest of the waitresses at McGoons never wanted to have them seated in their stations because, not only would they not tip, but Turk bought all their drinks.
Well, everything was going just great. The wedding started with the minister announcing: "If there's anyone here that objects to this union, speak now, or forever hold your peace"... I should have realized something was wrong, because they don't do that at wedding ceremonies anymore. I should add this other piece of important information also: Turk always loved to play pranks. I have another one that I will share with you at a later date...but I digress.
As soon as the minister said the magic words, over the hill and down the driveway comes this 1920's convertible roadster with the Lato Mob firing tommy guns. They jumped out of the car, and ran up to the wedding party shouting: "Stop the wedding...Dutch Schulz is wanted by the authorities back in Chicago".
At that moment Linda ripped off some expletives ahead of the minister and my children, which I won't repeat in this story (censorship) . The Lato Mob produced an actual photo of Dutch Schultz, which fortunately did not resemble me at all. This was all set up by Turk. The only one's who knew anything about it were Linda's parents, Bob and Billie Jensen, and Admiral Hinkle. Well, needless to say, that certainly changed the seriousness of the occasion, and everything was much more relaxed after that.
The party went on late into the evening. A great time was had by all. The next day Linda and I left for Honolulu for our honeymoon. More about that later!
2/25/10