… but it won’t get me a failing grade, either, on the Civic Literacy Test put out by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

“You answered 48 out of 60 correctly — 80.00 %
Average score for this quiz during October: 70.5%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.5%”

Apparently a stronger grasp of American economic history and macroeconomics in general would serve me well, according to the ISI.

Thirty-five years ago today, my parents got married on a wooded knoll in my grandparents’ backyard. My father wore a flowered shirt and my mother wore an ivory dress that she and my grandmother made and a veil of lace tatted by my great-grandmother. I can only imagine how proud both families must have been and how excited my parents (both younger than my brother or I are now) were to start a new life together.

Thirty-five years later, they are a little older, a little wiser, and a little more serious. They fit each other like jigsaw pieces, each with strengths to accommodate any weakness of the other. And they still love to cuddle up on the couch, to sing along with the radio, or to hop in the car for a drive together. And if you invite them someplace with a loudspeaker and music, expect them to dance. It used to embarrass us, but now we just find it sweet and reassuring.

Happy anniversary, Mum and Dad. May your next 35 years together be filled with much music, laughter, and dancing.