My wife and I got married in Santa Fe in 1976.  We didn’t have a lot of money, but our mothers were gone and our families and friends were on the coasts, so there would only be eight in the wedding party.  We arranged to have the reception and put everyone up at the lodge in a nearby national monument.

I worked in a printshop that had been one of the finest in town.  We still did brochures for the Santa Fe Opera, but signs were clear that the glory days were over.  A husband and wife team had started the shop, but they divorced, and with only one of them running the business, glitches appeared in the billing system, the revenues, and the payroll.  About the time we booked the rooms and locked in arrangements, my paychecks started to bounce.

The pressmen and I started cashing our checks at grocery stores and the boss’s bank, since our own banks charged fees for deposits that bounced.  The day before the wedding, a teller said, “I’m sorry, I can’t cash this check.  Your employer’s account is $1000 in arrears.”

“Please,”  I said.  “We’re getting married tomorrow, and we have to pay the caterers.  If they’re $1000 in the hole, what does another $150 matter?”

She bit her lip and scrunched up her eyebrows, then smiled, and handed me the cash.  “Congratulations!” she said.  “Have wonderful wedding day.”

Crisis narrowly averted.  But…

Do you think I ever put my faith in that employer again?

Do you think other nations will put their faith in United States credit again?

I’ll answer the first question.  We set about saving money to move back to California where economic prospects were better.

I don’t know the answer to question number two, but I do know that trust takes time to build and is easy to squander…