kyshandra

My parents were married in 1979, and they visited Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. This is their story.

My parents went to get their honeymoon certificate near the beginning of their visit, but it was near closing, so they just picked it up from the tourism office and left. When they got back to their hotel, they noticed that they had spelled a name wrong, so the next day they went back to get a new corrected one.

Just as they were leaving, the lady at the front desk got a call from at television guy wanting a couple on their honeymoon to interview for a television spot. The lady called back my parents, and they exchanged information with the guy.

My parents did their thing in Niagara and played phone tag with the television guy for a while, but they finally got a hold of each other. He had my parents come to one of the hotels the next day for a champagne breakfast and filming.

So, the next day, they got up and went over to the hotel and had breakfast on a crowded balcony facing the falls, accompanied by the cameraman and the sound guy, as well as a waiter who they probably got out of bed too early, according to my father.

The poor waiter, though, had a heck of a time with an uncooperative champagne bottle, but when it finally popped, over the edge the cork went! My dad followed it as far as he could out of the corner of his eye without craning over the edge while the camera was rolling, but apparently it hit a ’67 Chevy dead center in the hood. Poor commuter probably never knew what happened.

My parents finished their lovely breakfast, and when they went down, they found the cork on the sidewalk across the street.

The television guy asked them if they had been on the Maid of the Mist yet, and they said no. Since they wanted to, he told them to go down after lunch and give their names to the ticket booth and tell them who they were. They did so, and they got a free ride and moved to the head of the line.

They got married in June, and they got a letter that the show would air in October, but it wasn’t going to be on the air anywhere near them in Illinois, so they never got to see it.

While visiting me in October 2007, they went back to visit with me in tow. We didn’t do much but take pictures, but they were very cute!