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One day my sister Rose and I was driving downtown Minto, I seen these beautiful girls, I said to my sister I was going to go out with this girl before the winter is over.

Shortly after that, I got to meet that nice looking girl, her name was Rita Hachey. She was working in a restaurant called Seki as a waitress. I used to go there for a snack. I liked her and I would take her home after work. I would go to her house to pick her up and we would go for a drive, I had a 1952 Buick. It took me awhile to get to know her, and then we started going out together. We didn’t go steady for a while. On my birthday which was May 5th, Rita asked me if I wanted to go steady, and I said yes. We started to get serious about the time of her birthday which was in July. I asked her if she would marry me, and she said yes which made me very happy.

I had to get her an engagement ring, so we went to Fredericton, and got her a ring, it was not expensive, but it looked pretty nice. On the way back to Minto we had an accident. I was driving a 1954 Buick and I totalled it, turned it upside down in the ditch, nobody got hurt. We went back to Fredericton, we got a tow truck to come and take the car back to Fredericton. I wasn’t going to tell her that I bought her a diamond ring; I was so upset about smashing my car. When we were coming back from Fredericton, I had to tell her about the diamond ring, she was some excited about that. I wanted to wait and only tell her on her birthday which was July 31st.

I had to get another car. I bought another 1954 Buick, that car was not in very good shape. We got married on September 5th, 1955 at 7:00 o’clock in the morning. We didn’t have a choice because there was another wedding that day, that’s why we had to get married so early in the morning. After we got married, we went to her father and mother’s for breakfast it was very good, then we went to get some pictures taken.

We went to Fredericton to find a room for that night, we rented a cottage, my sister Annette and her husband came with us. We had a great time, and then early in the evening we went back to Minto.

My father was living with my brother Camille and his wife Lucy. They had made a big supper; they had invited Rita’s parents, brothers and sisters and all my brothers and sisters. We had a big turkey supper with all the goodies and big dessert. After that, we took more pictures, nothing professional but it gave us some souvenirs from the wedding.

We went to the dance that night; they had some good music, which didn’t finish until 12 o’clock. We went back to the cottage, and the next morning we went for breakfast at the restaurant. We went back to Minto and that day we had to take my sister back to her home, in Acadieville. That night we had another dance at my sister Evelyn’s home. It didn’t last too long but we had a good time.

The next morning I had to take Jean Baptise, my brother- in-law back to work at the Coal Branch. I came back to pick up my wife and went back to Minto, to Rita’s parents’ home. I didn’t have a lot of money left after the wedding. I had 200 dollars left in my pocket. Before we got married, Rita’s parents were living on what she was making working in the restaurant. She was earning 8 dollars a week plus the tips she was getting, in those days people didn’t leave a lot of money for a tip. Rita and I stayed with her mom and dad for about six months after we got married. I was paying for the groceries and whatever we needed for the house. Her mom and dad were very poor. He was sick with coal dust in his lungs. He didn’t work for quite some time.

Vital and Rita Thebeau Marriage Photo

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