As the rain falls on Oxford today, June 10th, I couldn’t help but be thankful. Eight years ago was a beautiful sunny day, and also my wedding day here — outside in the Oxford Square.
I spent many years living in Boston, the last 10 spent with my fiancé at the time, Loyd Smith. A fellow southerner from Arkansas, he knew, as did I, that we had to get married in Oxford and show our “Yankee” friends what the south is all about.
Many friends from up north, and family members from all over the south, made the trip and filled up the reserved rooms at the Downtown Inn (R.I.P.). Good thing the rooms were booked, by the time the wedding came around, we learned the Super Regionals (sadly Ole Miss lost to Miami) would be happening during our wedding weekend. Wedding goers and baseball players mingled by the pool under the Mississippi sun, and so the fun began.
Our guests enjoyed staying right on the Square within walking distance to the wedding and the reception, which was appropriately at City Grocery — my grandparents Hugh Wiley Sr and Susan Good Wiley owned the actual city grocery store housed there for several years back in the ’40s. At the reception, northerners mingled with southerners with ease and joy. A childhood friend pointed out that my southern accent had diminished during the 20-plus years I spent in Boston. I told her that “As far as my friends there go, I am the most southern person they know…” Her response, “Not anymore!”
But back to what I am thankful for, that the storms stayed away on that day in 2006. Although it still would have been a great day and ceremony I’m sure, it would have just happened inside the courthouse. When I asked my mother (Oxford local Bobbye Wiley) about having access to the building that day, she called former Oxford circuit clerk Mary Alice Busby who said “Have her pick up the keys on Thursday and just bring them back on Monday“. Now mind you, my father (Hugh C. Wiley Jr) was a native of Oxford and involved in city politics, and I went to school with Mrs. Busby’s son, but still — you’ve got to love small towns! All of our Yankee friends sure did.
Sarah Beth Wiley-Smith is the creative director of HottyToddy.com and hopes the Rebels have as much good fortune in Omaha as she has had with her husband Loyd. Contact Sarah Beth about this story at sb.wiley@hottytoddy.com
