Announcing my engagement

When you do not have a telephone, how can you call up your friends, parents, etc.,  most of whom do not even know you have a boyfriend, that you have decided to get married?  Alright, my old room mates whose couch I had warmed all weekend knew I had a new "friend" and that we had been been together for the time he had been in town that weekend.  It was a week before I was back in town for my church meetings. They were still shocked that it had happened so fast.  My parents did not have a phone yet, but I wrote my mother a letter as soon as I got home on Monday night.  There was a phone in the hall, but it was long distance, although I was only ten miles out of town.  I decided not to tell my classes yet. So who was the first to know?  My PRINCIPAL, Mr Spears, whom I disliked and who would have been the last person I would have told.  This is how it happened.

Before school was out the next day, I got a note from Spears asking me to come to his office as soon as school was out.  He had often asked for favors, usually to have me sub on my free period for some teacher who was out sick.  I thought it was something of that nature or to make refreshments for some meeting he was having. His first question was," Where were you this weekend?"  I wanted to ask, " Who wants to know?, but I proceeded to tell him about my activities. Then he shocked me with," The townspeople wondered who was bringing you to school  early in the morning.  It did not look good, and they wondered where you had spent the night".

I explained that Ted, the fellow who had helped me at the Halloween party, had stayed at the YMCA.  Then he dropped the bomb.  "Are you going to marry him?" as if to imply, "From what we have seen, you should."
I threw back my head and said,"As a matter of fact I am." I told him  it would probably be after school would be out in June and that we would live near Fort Bragg. It was legally my notice.

The devildog in baggy pants

This handsome soldier's picture was taken as soon as he got dressed in his uniform, his first day in the army You can see how happy he is to be serving his country. The Korean war was on and (a) he knew he would be drafted as soon as he graduated from BYU and (b) he desperately wanted to be a paratrooper. Draftees did not always get their choice. They were called "devildogs in baggy pants", because they wore the legs of their pants stuffed into the top of the boots, bloused they said. He hoped to see the world, starting with Korea, and by the time we met he had volunteered for overseas duty, and was disappointed that they turned him down. It was fate !!  As soon as that big diamond was on my finger I made him promise he would not volunteer for any extra duty. He had been jumping from every airplane that had an extra seat, although he was only obligated to jump once a month to get the "jump pay" which was an extra hundred dollars. 

In this photo his hair looks longer than I remember.  They probably marched him to the barber right after the photo shoot for the signature crew cut. Actually, I did not see see him in uniform for several months. He always wore those neat cashmere sweaters or a suit. In an earlier post I told how we met and that he arranged a four day pass (72 hours) to visit me in Durham. I was too busy to pick him up at the bus station, so my old friend took my car and brought him to my school where I had multi responsibilities for the school Halloween party, the biggest fund raiser for the year. My students were selling homemade candy apples.  I was in charge of the beauty contest. The girl who had the most money raised was the beauty queen. Actually she was the prettiest.  Whew !!

Some of the boys wanted to dress up like girls and put on a fashion show - 25 cents admission.  We borrowed girls clothes and depending on which girls were in the audience, the clever announcer inserted their names into the dialogue. The crowd went wild with the girls' reactions. I put Ted in charge of dressing the boys,  who had been asked to get the outfits complete with the biggest bras they could find. He was busy stuffing  the bras when one guy pulled from each pocket a huge dirty foam falsie saying they were his sisters. It was quite a night.

I took Ted to the YMCA for the weekend and I camped out on the sofa of my old roomies, as I did about every weekend.  The next morning we drove up to Roxboro to do some Relief Society business and in the afternoon we saw a football game, Duke & Georgia Tech.  A movie that night, The Red Shoes (Moira Schearrer) completed the day. It was then I discovered he wore glasses.  Then I insisted he drive my car which he had hesitated to do. From then on he was the driver.

Sunday was mostly church meetings., My car was developing a funny sound so he suggested he should drive me home and take my car to get it fixed.  I decided on my friends' couch another night and have him take me to school in the morning. Anything to keep from building a fire in the coal stove in my apartment !

When school was out, Ted was there and at my door was a huge box of kindling he had cut on the school's woodpile, with a note, "See how handy a man can be around the house."  It was time to take him to the bus station.  We talked and talked and kissed and kissed while we waited for the bus. Just before it came he asked me to marry him and I said I would. He jumped out of my car and ran for the bus.                                          

Nudging ninety

After taking a few years away from this blog, I find I am closer ninety than I had thought I would be at the end of the story. . The pause was not intended. Several things happened. We decided to go on another mission. As I read through my last posting I realized I was not in the right frame of mind to finish. Often I would lie in bed thinking of how I would write my next blog. If sleep did not come right away, I would get up, write an experience and try again to get back to sleep. When I realized I had written the same experience twice, I knew it was time to get my mind on something else, especially the learning of Spanish, since we had been called to Spain. It was our fifth mission, and I knew missionary work would be my whole life for two years.

The next post was to tell all the details of falling in love and committing to marriage in one long weekend. It is a good story, but it will be the next post after this. My soldier boy proved to be the best fiance, the best husband, father and grandfather on the planet. Maybe I should add son-in-law and brother-in-law, because my family has loved him too. We had another year in the army at Fort Bragg. Then it was graduate school at Brigham Young University and the U. of N.M. in Albuquerque making perfect grades, becoming the favorite of a world recognized professor who coached him through paleography and writing an outstanding dissertation translated from  15th century Spanish script. Ted later translated the journal of the first Europeans in our state and added to the history used today.

He has been a leader in our church serving as a bishop to students at the university and counselor to three other bishops.  He has enjoyed teaching and being involved in helping others, especially young people, appreciate the heritage we have. Now that he is suffering from severe dementia, many of his former students and colleagues stop by the house to help him remember the good times they had and the influence he has been on their lives.  It is a good time. We have lived in many parts of the world, taken many people in our home from all over the world to live. We have saved enough to live well. Yes, it is a good time, and we feel we have a few more good years left.  I have 50 tulips left to plant today and I will get back to the story tomorrow.