When Kathy and I were first married, we joined a Sunday School class for young married couples at the church we attended. The church was in the southwest corner of Connecticut, and many of the couples were as feisty and outspoken as you might expect, in the shadow of New York City.

I remember one of our gatherings in which we decided to play a homemade version of the Newlywed Game. “This will be fun,” we said, “what a great way to get to know everyone and poke a little fun at ourselves at the same time.”

Har, har, har.

Unfortunately, the game proved a little too volatile for our competitive group, and some of the players actually became angry with their spouses over answers. “I still can’t believe you didn’t know the name of my third grade teacher,” I might have snarled at Kathy.

After months of practice with cue cards (and still getting the answers wrong), Kathy and I decided that starting this game had been a serious mistake. “It’s just playing with fire,” we agreed, soberly. To this day we warn other young couples to stay far away from the Newlywed Game, “If you value your marriage,” we tell them in hushed tones.

Therefore, you can imagine our “delight” when we were selected to play the Newlywed Game this evening at the Church Staff/Elder Retreat we’re attending. We were the ‘middle’ couple, competing with a husband/wife pair who were married about a month ago, and with another couple who have been married 49 years. No doubt we looked like easy targets, or at least good for a few laughs.

After all these years, who knew the Newlywed Game would return to haunt us.

Thankfully the questions were a good mix of easy and difficult, and we actually had a lot of fun playing. The audience got some good laughs, and we were only defeated by a single point, which I thought was a pretty good showing. We went out into the hallway after the game to muffle any recriminations: “My third grade teacher’s name was Ms. Pollack, for crying out loud!”

After the game ended, the pastor announced he was offering discounted marital counseling to all contestants, which I thought was extremely helpful. I wonder if the 2 to 2:30 pm block is still open.

Kathy left her camera download cable at home, so the blog will be picture-less for the time being (gasp). Nonetheless, it looks to be a fun couple of days. My folks graciously agreed to stay with the kids while we are gone, so I’m sure the house will be hopping in our absence.

Tim

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