Don and Helen Soper's 50th Anniversary

Today, April 6, marks the fiftieth year since my parents were married. Unlike most kids, I had the unique opportunity of attending my parents' wedding. I remember my mom wore this chic dress with a fur thing around the collar. And a hat of course. Although they never had much money mom and dad were always spiffy dressers. I was less than three weeks away from turning 10 years old, precisely the age that my niece Mallory will be celebrating this month.

So, yes I came from one of the nation's first postwar dysfunctional families -- my father had been married twice before and both ended in larger-than-life failures. Still, the first marriage produced my half-brother Don and the second me; and in a way the the second also produced my other half-brother Greg, who turns fifty this year on April 10.

April, or at any rate this April, marks a few major benchmarks to be sure.