Back inthe 1930s, the little town of Elkton,Maryland was a happening place if you needed or wanted to get married in a hurry. Maryland did not have the waiting period that other states had imposed, and Elkton was conveniently located in the Northeast corner of the state- close to the border of Pennsylvania and not too far from New York and New Jersey. People eloped here from far and wide- both celebrities and the not so famous, and the main street was lined with wedding chapels. Cornel Wilde eloped here in 1937.
Debbie Reynolds, Joan Fontaine and my parents, George and Bebe Cokinos all got married here. (The only difference being my parents' marriage turned out to be the only one of these that lasted.)
My father was a Greek American, and he was not supposed to marry outside the Hellenic community, but he fell in love with my very non-Greek mother. That's part of the reason why my parents snuck away to Elkton when they were only 17 and 19 on Memorial Day. In 1935 the holiday was always celebrated on May 30th, and was not the weekend event it is now. The newlyweds did not have enough money to spend the night, so they settled for a fried chicken dinner before heading back down to D.C. without telling their parents what they had done. They might have been less nervous if they had known that, despite the odds, their marriage would last until death did they part- happily 72 years later.
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