I dialed her phone number, but hung up before her phone started ringing. I dialed her number again, and then hung up again before it started ringing. It was Sunday morning and I was trying to get the courage to call Janet Hawkes (Jannie) to ask her out again. I tried a third time and hung up. I was sure I had scared her off when I told her I loved her the night before. What a dolt! To make matters worse, Evelyn was standing right there laughing at me and egging me on to call her again. “Quit being a chicken and call her. She will go out with you again”, she kept telling me. So once again I called. This time I didn’t hang up. I had no idea what I was going to say. When she answered the phone I stumbled over my words, but shortly we got a small conversation going. I then asked her out for later that afternoon. I had no idea what to do on a Sunday afternoon, but asked her to go with me to the Rosicrucian Museum. I figured a museum was a safe date for Sunday afternoon. Jannie must have figured that it was a safe place…with lots of people around, maybe this guy would cool it with the “I love you” line.
That afternoon I picked Jannie up at her apartment and we drove down the Rosicrucian Museum. We had a nice time and laughed a lot. The museum was operated by the RosicrucianÂ’s, an Egyptian religious order. The museum was full of mummy displays. The gardens were manicured, with a fountain in the center of the courtyard. I think the incident that got us laughing the most happened when we were sitting on edge of the fountain in the courtyard and my coat fell into the water. I actually was wearing the suit coat and the back edge was in the water! We laughed about it for a long time.
I need to go back to the Sadie Hawkins Dance the day before, at the old San Jose West Stake Center (now the Saratoga, CA Stake). I was the Institute President and the Sadie Hawkins Dance was sponsored by the Institute, Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA), and M-Men and Gleaners. I was a newly returned Missionary, but didn’t have a date to the dance. The Vice President, Bonnie, was my sister’s best friend. She didn’t have a date either. We were not interested in one other, except as friends, but since neither one of us had a date, I suggested that we go to the dance together. On the day of the dance she called me to tell me she would be late getting home from work, so to pick her up later. When we arrived at the dance, we were “fashionably” late.
As we walked in late, we were met at the door by Jannie and Ramona, who gave us a hard time for being late. Bonnie immediately took off to find her friends and I went with Jannie and Ramona. Jannie asked me to dance, and we danced. And we danced every dance that night, except one, as I remember it. That dance involved shoes. All the guys had to take off one shoe and toss it into the center of the floor. The girls had to get a shoe and find the owner and then dance with that person. Jannie swears she tried to find my shoe, but ended up with someone elseÂ’s shoe and I danced that dance with someone who must have been very forgettable as I have forgotten who it was. As soon as that dance was over, I bee-lined to Jannie, and we danced some more.
Then there was the pie eating contestÂ…for which Jannie entered us. The guy had to eat the pie as it was fed to him by the girlÂ….standing behind him, blindfolded. We won the contest, but I donÂ’t think I ate much pie as Jannie smeared most of it all over my face. And she did it on purpose! We laughed a lot, danced a lot, and held hands a lot that evening.
When the dance was about to be over, I asked Jannie if I could take her home. She had come to the dance with Ramona, so she said “yes”. Then I remembered Bonnie. So I needed to get her a ride home. When I found her she said she figured that I would want to take Jannie home, so she had gotten another ride. So Jannie and I left together. I wasn’t in a hurry to get her home, and she was not in a hurry to get home, so we decided to get a pizza. We went to Shakey’s Pizza. When our pizza and drinks came we blew straw papers at each other. I told her my “Polock” joke and we split a gut laughing. This girl was special and I knew right off that I wanted to see her again. I took her home and the “I love you” incident almost ended everything right there. But, as I recounted earlier, I recovered and she went out with me again.
We started dating steadily. But, she already had a date for her StakeÂ’s Gold and Green Ball. She felt bad having to break the date at the last minute, so she asked if I would mind if she went to the Ball with Verne. Her date was a friend, but nothing more, at least on her part. So I told her to go ahead and go, especially since I had to work that night and couldnÂ’t go. And she had a part in the floor show at intermission. On the day of the Ball, my Stake had an M-Men and GleanerÂ’s (now Young Single Adults) beach party at Santa Cruz. She went with me, but we had to leave early so she could get ready for the dance and I could go to work.
The Gold and Green Ball at the San Jose Stake Center started at 8:00 PM. I was scheduled to work until 10. However, it was a slow night and the boss asked who wanted to leave early that evening. I jumped at the chance and was off work at 7:30 PM. I had plenty of time to get to the Ball. I hurried home and cleaned up and was on my way to the dance before 8:30. On my way to the dance I devised a plan to wrest Jannie away from Verne for most of the evening. I needed a cohort in crime to get it done. Ramona was just the right person. I arrived a little after 8:30 and found Ramona. The plan was so simple it was genius! Ramona was to ask Verne to dance and move him to the further most part of the Cultural Hall. Then I would have Jannie to myself for a few dances. It worked perfectly. I had Jannie for the rest of the first half of the dance. We danced until time for the intermission. I reluctantly let Verne have his date back for the rest of the evening. I was going to leave, but Ramona talked me into staying for the rest of the dance. When the dance was over and Jannie and Verne were leaving, I took Jannie’s arm and said I would see her tomorrow. Jannie could have died, but I was sending a message to old Verne. After we parted he said to her, “I think he likes you.” She played it off. And she never dated anyone but me again.
One evening we went to the movies (yes, she actually went to the movies!) at the Garden Theater in Willow Glen to see The Thomas Crown Affair. I had, at that time, been accepted to BYU for the fall semester. We had discussed my going to BYU. But, the more time I spent with Jannie, the less appealing BYU seemed. So, as we stood in line to purchase tickets, I told her that I had decided not to go to BYU as I had more important concerns hereÂ….her. So, I decided to stay in school in San Jose.
We dated for about three weeks….seeing each other almost every day and night. Then one evening we were in the car at the end of the evening, in front of her apartment. It was time to walk her to the door, but I wasn’t ready to end the evening. I had made the decision that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this girl, and I thought she felt the same about me. So I swallowed hard, looked deep into her eyes, and asked her to marry me. She sat there for what seemed like an eternity, then smiled and said she would love to marry me. I blurted out, “YOU WOULD?” I don’t know what I thought she would say, but I was excited! Of course, we didn’t know when, but we did know that we wanted an Eternal Marriage and that we would go to the Oakland Temple to be married. We had been dating for three weeks, and now it is thirty seven years, eight kids, and nineteen grandkids later…so I guess we dated long enough.
When I finally got home I woke my mother to tell her I was marrying Jannie Hawkes. She said, “Oh no you’re not!” Must be a Mom thing with her oldest son. Anyway, I told her I was and that was the end of the conversation. She came around eventually, but it took a while, and a good talking to by Jannie’s father to get her to lighten up.
The next few weeks were a blur. We spent a lot to time together. We picked a date in November. Then I had to meet her parents. They were flying in from Boise and staying with JannieÂ’Pattoner and brother-in-law, Anne and John Patten. On the appointed night I showed up, dressed up to the hilt. I was very nervous. Her dad was a High Priest and older. I figured I could get through the evening. As it turned out, we had a great time. I learned that her dad had mellowed in his old age. I guess JannieÂ’s sistersÂ’ beaus had to under go quite the treatment from Harold Hawkes. But by the time his baby girl was getting married, he softened. I only knew him as a softie.
During the weekend her parents were here, we took them over to meet my mother, who, at that time still stood by her first statement when I told her I was getting married…”Oh no you’re not!” Harold had a good talk with my mother on supporting “our kids”, and by the end of the evening she began to soften. Took a couple of more days, but in the end, we got her support and blessing. A year later, my sister became engaged to Scott Smith. His mother was giving them a hard time, like my mom gave us. My mother wrote me a letter while I was in Viet Nam and said she needed to have Harold Hawkes come down and give the Don and Venna Smith, Scott parents, his talk!
I was going to school at San Jose City College and working full time at McDonaldÂ’s. I was about to begin my last semester at SJCC and having that status, I got to register earlyÂ….when there were still plenty of classes. Remember, this was before the Internet, so we had to register in person, going from table to table to get classes. My boss at McDonaldÂ’s worked around my schedule. When she found out that I was getting married, she offered me a promotion from assistant manager to manager, with a raise, and corresponding increase in hours. To earn $425 per month, I had to work only 48 hours per week. When I told her that I wasnÂ’t interested in working that many hours as I was about to have a new wife and still going to school full time, she agreed to reduce my hours to 45. Needless to say, I left the employ of McDonaldÂ’s.
Fortunately for me, my Dad had become Vice President of Holiday Airlines, and his office was at the Hollywood-Burbank Airport in Burbank, CA. He became friends with the folks who ran Catalina Airlines / Aero Commuter and secured for me a position with that airline at the same airport, if I wanted the job. I wanted the job. However, this did create a problemÂ….leaving Jannie. In the end, I took the job and moved to North Hollywood. My Dad and Audrey invited me to stay with them until I got married. Jannie came down a time or two, and we spent a lot of time on the phone. In fact, so much time that it was getting very expensive in long distance bills. We decided that this was foolish, so we moved our wedding date to August 31, 1968. It was mid JulyÂ…just six weeks away. We had a lot to do. Actually, Jannie had lots to do. I just sort of showed up! I lived in Southern California, after all. I did go out and find us our first house. A small house on Denny Avenue, North Hollywood. I was able to put a deposit down to hold the place, but couldnÂ’t move in before September 1st. The landlord did allow me to move some things in a day or so before I had to go to San Jose and my wedding. So I moved all my stuff from my DadÂ’s house to our house, ready to move in.
I also had to plan our honeymoon. I wanted to spend our wedding night and a couple of days at the Highlands Inn in Carmel, CA. I made reservations for the night of August 31st. Our room included dinner and breakfast each day. We stayed in Carmel for a couple of days. Then we were planning on going to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days, then on to Boise for our reception on August 8. We needed to arrive on Thursday, I think. I had no trouble making the reservations we needed for the Highlands Inn, but couldn’t make a reservation for the Sahara Tahoe Hotel as it was booked. I had forgotten to take in account the Labor Day Weekend. When my Dad came down to the airline to ask me to lunch, I told him I couldn’t get a reservation for the Sahara. He said he would take care of it. He called the hotel manager and told him his kid was getting married and needed a room for a couple of days. Done. Since my Dad was Vice President of Holiday Airlines, and the only destination for Holiday Airlines was South Lake Tahoe, Dad was accorded VIP treatment. When I was about to depart for San Jose, my Dad handed me his Sahara Tahoe credit card and told me to charge everything we did on the card, except gambling. Again, because of my Dad’s status, we were “guests of the hotel” and everything….room, food, shows, even the beauty parlor, were comp’ed to us. We even met the hotel manager when we checked in as we were listed as VIP’s. He reminded me to use the guest card!
On Saturday morning, August 31, 1968, I left my mother’s house early and headed for Oakland. I picked up Jannie’s brother, Craig, and we drove up. We arrived at the Oakland Temple around 7 AM. Jannie had to take out her endowments before we got married. Our session was at 10 AM, and our wedding was at 2 PM in the Sealing Room. If we could do it over, we would have had Jannie take her endowments out a day or so earlier. We had our daughters take their endowments early to make the wedding day shorter. There were a slough of brides that morning and we were towards the end. Finally we had our turn and then we went to the sealing room. We had to wait again. Finally we got into the room and we were married. Then we went outside for pictures. My cousin and her husband then drove us over the South San Francisco to Jannie’s sisters house (Clarice) for a brunch, the was more a “Linner” because it was so late. Then on to San Jose and the Open House.
The Open House was at the 4th and 9th Ward building from 7 to 9 PM. We had lobbied for it to be over earlier, but in the end, with all the delays that day, it needed to start at 7. My dad flew in for the afternoon, but had to leave before the end of the open house to catch the last Air California flight to Burbank. I told him to use my car to drive to the airport and we coordinated as to where he should park. Shortly after he left, our little nephews came up to tell Uncle Frank and Aunt Jannie that our car was gone. JannieÂ’s brothers wanted to do our car, but it was gone. As the evening slowed down, we got ready to leave. JannieÂ’s sisters hid her going away dress, so we were delayed even longer in making our get-a-way. Finally, we got into the Lincoln and Linda and John drove us to the airport. We were followed by everyone tooting horns and hoping to find our car before we did. As we drove towards the freeway with everyone in tow, John swerved to the left at the last minute, changing lanes and leaving the others on the on-ramp to the freeway, heading away from the airport. We got to the airport and our car. Finally, for the first time since, what seemed like a very long day, we were alone!
It was about 10 pm when we left the airport. We were dressed up; Jannie in her red going away dress and I in my one size too small suit (a gift from my Dad and Audrey. They already had the suit and gave it to me for my wedding). As we left San Jose towards Carmel, we had a two hour drive. We were hungry and exhausted. Since we missed our dinner at the hotel, our first meal together as husband and wife was at A&W Root Beer in Morgan Hill. We had hamburgers, in our car, served by a teenage waitress on roller skates. It was a tough drive, but fighting sleep, we made it to the HighlandÂ’s Inn at Carmel.
We spent a couple of days doing the newlywed and tourist thing in Carmel. Then, on to Lake Tahoe. We arrived in Lake Tahoe early in the afternoon and got checked in. Our room didnÂ’t exactly have a lake view, but what do you expect when you have no reservations and are guest of the hotel. It was a nice room and had a king size bed. We had lunch, and Jannie got her hair done at the hotel beauty shop. We toured a lot of Tahoe, and went to a show that night. We saw John Gary in concert. We even played the slots and I won a couple of $50 jackpots. Then on Thursday morning we loaded the car and headed to Boise.
We arrive in Boise that evening. By this time everything was pretty much a blur. Lots of running around getting ready for the reception on Saturday. Finally, we had the reception. My mother, Aunt June and Aunt Dee flew in. Lots of pictures taken and met many people I still have no idea who were. One funny side light. We got a gift from friends of Jannie in San Jose.ThIsaacsonus a cake plate. To show how small the world is, Chad married Kimber Issacson a lot of years later. As we talked, Jannie mentioned the Isaccsons she knew in San Jose, and that they had given us a cake plate for a wedding gift. Turns out the Isacsons Jannie knew was KimberÂ’s uncle! We decided to give the plate to Chad and Kimber, but when we got the plate out, it was broken in half. We had moved this plate in all our Army moves, and then had it her for nearly 30 years, then when we wanted to give it to our kids, it was broken. Go figure.
We left Boise and returned to North Hollywood. We got settled into our little house and began our lives together. We lived there until the following mid February. I was working full time and going to school at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys. I had transferred there when I started with the Airlines, but because I transferred so late I couldn’t get enough credits to maintain my student deferment from the military draft. Just six months after we were married, I received a letter that started out, “Greetings from the President”. I had been drafted into the United States Army. I later enlisted to “beat” the draft. On February 26, 1969 I became a buck private and began my basic training at Fort Ord, California. TO BE CONTINUED:
That afternoon I picked Jannie up at her apartment and we drove down the Rosicrucian Museum. We had a nice time and laughed a lot. The museum was operated by the RosicrucianÂ’s, an Egyptian religious order. The museum was full of mummy displays. The gardens were manicured, with a fountain in the center of the courtyard. I think the incident that got us laughing the most happened when we were sitting on edge of the fountain in the courtyard and my coat fell into the water. I actually was wearing the suit coat and the back edge was in the water! We laughed about it for a long time.
I need to go back to the Sadie Hawkins Dance the day before, at the old San Jose West Stake Center (now the Saratoga, CA Stake). I was the Institute President and the Sadie Hawkins Dance was sponsored by the Institute, Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA), and M-Men and Gleaners. I was a newly returned Missionary, but didn’t have a date to the dance. The Vice President, Bonnie, was my sister’s best friend. She didn’t have a date either. We were not interested in one other, except as friends, but since neither one of us had a date, I suggested that we go to the dance together. On the day of the dance she called me to tell me she would be late getting home from work, so to pick her up later. When we arrived at the dance, we were “fashionably” late.
As we walked in late, we were met at the door by Jannie and Ramona, who gave us a hard time for being late. Bonnie immediately took off to find her friends and I went with Jannie and Ramona. Jannie asked me to dance, and we danced. And we danced every dance that night, except one, as I remember it. That dance involved shoes. All the guys had to take off one shoe and toss it into the center of the floor. The girls had to get a shoe and find the owner and then dance with that person. Jannie swears she tried to find my shoe, but ended up with someone elseÂ’s shoe and I danced that dance with someone who must have been very forgettable as I have forgotten who it was. As soon as that dance was over, I bee-lined to Jannie, and we danced some more.
Then there was the pie eating contestÂ…for which Jannie entered us. The guy had to eat the pie as it was fed to him by the girlÂ….standing behind him, blindfolded. We won the contest, but I donÂ’t think I ate much pie as Jannie smeared most of it all over my face. And she did it on purpose! We laughed a lot, danced a lot, and held hands a lot that evening.
When the dance was about to be over, I asked Jannie if I could take her home. She had come to the dance with Ramona, so she said “yes”. Then I remembered Bonnie. So I needed to get her a ride home. When I found her she said she figured that I would want to take Jannie home, so she had gotten another ride. So Jannie and I left together. I wasn’t in a hurry to get her home, and she was not in a hurry to get home, so we decided to get a pizza. We went to Shakey’s Pizza. When our pizza and drinks came we blew straw papers at each other. I told her my “Polock” joke and we split a gut laughing. This girl was special and I knew right off that I wanted to see her again. I took her home and the “I love you” incident almost ended everything right there. But, as I recounted earlier, I recovered and she went out with me again.
We started dating steadily. But, she already had a date for her StakeÂ’s Gold and Green Ball. She felt bad having to break the date at the last minute, so she asked if I would mind if she went to the Ball with Verne. Her date was a friend, but nothing more, at least on her part. So I told her to go ahead and go, especially since I had to work that night and couldnÂ’t go. And she had a part in the floor show at intermission. On the day of the Ball, my Stake had an M-Men and GleanerÂ’s (now Young Single Adults) beach party at Santa Cruz. She went with me, but we had to leave early so she could get ready for the dance and I could go to work.
The Gold and Green Ball at the San Jose Stake Center started at 8:00 PM. I was scheduled to work until 10. However, it was a slow night and the boss asked who wanted to leave early that evening. I jumped at the chance and was off work at 7:30 PM. I had plenty of time to get to the Ball. I hurried home and cleaned up and was on my way to the dance before 8:30. On my way to the dance I devised a plan to wrest Jannie away from Verne for most of the evening. I needed a cohort in crime to get it done. Ramona was just the right person. I arrived a little after 8:30 and found Ramona. The plan was so simple it was genius! Ramona was to ask Verne to dance and move him to the further most part of the Cultural Hall. Then I would have Jannie to myself for a few dances. It worked perfectly. I had Jannie for the rest of the first half of the dance. We danced until time for the intermission. I reluctantly let Verne have his date back for the rest of the evening. I was going to leave, but Ramona talked me into staying for the rest of the dance. When the dance was over and Jannie and Verne were leaving, I took Jannie’s arm and said I would see her tomorrow. Jannie could have died, but I was sending a message to old Verne. After we parted he said to her, “I think he likes you.” She played it off. And she never dated anyone but me again.
One evening we went to the movies (yes, she actually went to the movies!) at the Garden Theater in Willow Glen to see The Thomas Crown Affair. I had, at that time, been accepted to BYU for the fall semester. We had discussed my going to BYU. But, the more time I spent with Jannie, the less appealing BYU seemed. So, as we stood in line to purchase tickets, I told her that I had decided not to go to BYU as I had more important concerns hereÂ….her. So, I decided to stay in school in San Jose.
We dated for about three weeks….seeing each other almost every day and night. Then one evening we were in the car at the end of the evening, in front of her apartment. It was time to walk her to the door, but I wasn’t ready to end the evening. I had made the decision that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this girl, and I thought she felt the same about me. So I swallowed hard, looked deep into her eyes, and asked her to marry me. She sat there for what seemed like an eternity, then smiled and said she would love to marry me. I blurted out, “YOU WOULD?” I don’t know what I thought she would say, but I was excited! Of course, we didn’t know when, but we did know that we wanted an Eternal Marriage and that we would go to the Oakland Temple to be married. We had been dating for three weeks, and now it is thirty seven years, eight kids, and nineteen grandkids later…so I guess we dated long enough.
When I finally got home I woke my mother to tell her I was marrying Jannie Hawkes. She said, “Oh no you’re not!” Must be a Mom thing with her oldest son. Anyway, I told her I was and that was the end of the conversation. She came around eventually, but it took a while, and a good talking to by Jannie’s father to get her to lighten up.
The next few weeks were a blur. We spent a lot to time together. We picked a date in November. Then I had to meet her parents. They were flying in from Boise and staying with JannieÂ’Pattoner and brother-in-law, Anne and John Patten. On the appointed night I showed up, dressed up to the hilt. I was very nervous. Her dad was a High Priest and older. I figured I could get through the evening. As it turned out, we had a great time. I learned that her dad had mellowed in his old age. I guess JannieÂ’s sistersÂ’ beaus had to under go quite the treatment from Harold Hawkes. But by the time his baby girl was getting married, he softened. I only knew him as a softie.
During the weekend her parents were here, we took them over to meet my mother, who, at that time still stood by her first statement when I told her I was getting married…”Oh no you’re not!” Harold had a good talk with my mother on supporting “our kids”, and by the end of the evening she began to soften. Took a couple of more days, but in the end, we got her support and blessing. A year later, my sister became engaged to Scott Smith. His mother was giving them a hard time, like my mom gave us. My mother wrote me a letter while I was in Viet Nam and said she needed to have Harold Hawkes come down and give the Don and Venna Smith, Scott parents, his talk!
I was going to school at San Jose City College and working full time at McDonaldÂ’s. I was about to begin my last semester at SJCC and having that status, I got to register earlyÂ….when there were still plenty of classes. Remember, this was before the Internet, so we had to register in person, going from table to table to get classes. My boss at McDonaldÂ’s worked around my schedule. When she found out that I was getting married, she offered me a promotion from assistant manager to manager, with a raise, and corresponding increase in hours. To earn $425 per month, I had to work only 48 hours per week. When I told her that I wasnÂ’t interested in working that many hours as I was about to have a new wife and still going to school full time, she agreed to reduce my hours to 45. Needless to say, I left the employ of McDonaldÂ’s.
Fortunately for me, my Dad had become Vice President of Holiday Airlines, and his office was at the Hollywood-Burbank Airport in Burbank, CA. He became friends with the folks who ran Catalina Airlines / Aero Commuter and secured for me a position with that airline at the same airport, if I wanted the job. I wanted the job. However, this did create a problemÂ….leaving Jannie. In the end, I took the job and moved to North Hollywood. My Dad and Audrey invited me to stay with them until I got married. Jannie came down a time or two, and we spent a lot of time on the phone. In fact, so much time that it was getting very expensive in long distance bills. We decided that this was foolish, so we moved our wedding date to August 31, 1968. It was mid JulyÂ…just six weeks away. We had a lot to do. Actually, Jannie had lots to do. I just sort of showed up! I lived in Southern California, after all. I did go out and find us our first house. A small house on Denny Avenue, North Hollywood. I was able to put a deposit down to hold the place, but couldnÂ’t move in before September 1st. The landlord did allow me to move some things in a day or so before I had to go to San Jose and my wedding. So I moved all my stuff from my DadÂ’s house to our house, ready to move in.
I also had to plan our honeymoon. I wanted to spend our wedding night and a couple of days at the Highlands Inn in Carmel, CA. I made reservations for the night of August 31st. Our room included dinner and breakfast each day. We stayed in Carmel for a couple of days. Then we were planning on going to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days, then on to Boise for our reception on August 8. We needed to arrive on Thursday, I think. I had no trouble making the reservations we needed for the Highlands Inn, but couldn’t make a reservation for the Sahara Tahoe Hotel as it was booked. I had forgotten to take in account the Labor Day Weekend. When my Dad came down to the airline to ask me to lunch, I told him I couldn’t get a reservation for the Sahara. He said he would take care of it. He called the hotel manager and told him his kid was getting married and needed a room for a couple of days. Done. Since my Dad was Vice President of Holiday Airlines, and the only destination for Holiday Airlines was South Lake Tahoe, Dad was accorded VIP treatment. When I was about to depart for San Jose, my Dad handed me his Sahara Tahoe credit card and told me to charge everything we did on the card, except gambling. Again, because of my Dad’s status, we were “guests of the hotel” and everything….room, food, shows, even the beauty parlor, were comp’ed to us. We even met the hotel manager when we checked in as we were listed as VIP’s. He reminded me to use the guest card!
On Saturday morning, August 31, 1968, I left my mother’s house early and headed for Oakland. I picked up Jannie’s brother, Craig, and we drove up. We arrived at the Oakland Temple around 7 AM. Jannie had to take out her endowments before we got married. Our session was at 10 AM, and our wedding was at 2 PM in the Sealing Room. If we could do it over, we would have had Jannie take her endowments out a day or so earlier. We had our daughters take their endowments early to make the wedding day shorter. There were a slough of brides that morning and we were towards the end. Finally we had our turn and then we went to the sealing room. We had to wait again. Finally we got into the room and we were married. Then we went outside for pictures. My cousin and her husband then drove us over the South San Francisco to Jannie’s sisters house (Clarice) for a brunch, the was more a “Linner” because it was so late. Then on to San Jose and the Open House.
The Open House was at the 4th and 9th Ward building from 7 to 9 PM. We had lobbied for it to be over earlier, but in the end, with all the delays that day, it needed to start at 7. My dad flew in for the afternoon, but had to leave before the end of the open house to catch the last Air California flight to Burbank. I told him to use my car to drive to the airport and we coordinated as to where he should park. Shortly after he left, our little nephews came up to tell Uncle Frank and Aunt Jannie that our car was gone. JannieÂ’s brothers wanted to do our car, but it was gone. As the evening slowed down, we got ready to leave. JannieÂ’s sisters hid her going away dress, so we were delayed even longer in making our get-a-way. Finally, we got into the Lincoln and Linda and John drove us to the airport. We were followed by everyone tooting horns and hoping to find our car before we did. As we drove towards the freeway with everyone in tow, John swerved to the left at the last minute, changing lanes and leaving the others on the on-ramp to the freeway, heading away from the airport. We got to the airport and our car. Finally, for the first time since, what seemed like a very long day, we were alone!
It was about 10 pm when we left the airport. We were dressed up; Jannie in her red going away dress and I in my one size too small suit (a gift from my Dad and Audrey. They already had the suit and gave it to me for my wedding). As we left San Jose towards Carmel, we had a two hour drive. We were hungry and exhausted. Since we missed our dinner at the hotel, our first meal together as husband and wife was at A&W Root Beer in Morgan Hill. We had hamburgers, in our car, served by a teenage waitress on roller skates. It was a tough drive, but fighting sleep, we made it to the HighlandÂ’s Inn at Carmel.
We spent a couple of days doing the newlywed and tourist thing in Carmel. Then, on to Lake Tahoe. We arrived in Lake Tahoe early in the afternoon and got checked in. Our room didnÂ’t exactly have a lake view, but what do you expect when you have no reservations and are guest of the hotel. It was a nice room and had a king size bed. We had lunch, and Jannie got her hair done at the hotel beauty shop. We toured a lot of Tahoe, and went to a show that night. We saw John Gary in concert. We even played the slots and I won a couple of $50 jackpots. Then on Thursday morning we loaded the car and headed to Boise.
We arrive in Boise that evening. By this time everything was pretty much a blur. Lots of running around getting ready for the reception on Saturday. Finally, we had the reception. My mother, Aunt June and Aunt Dee flew in. Lots of pictures taken and met many people I still have no idea who were. One funny side light. We got a gift from friends of Jannie in San Jose.ThIsaacsonus a cake plate. To show how small the world is, Chad married Kimber Issacson a lot of years later. As we talked, Jannie mentioned the Isaccsons she knew in San Jose, and that they had given us a cake plate for a wedding gift. Turns out the Isacsons Jannie knew was KimberÂ’s uncle! We decided to give the plate to Chad and Kimber, but when we got the plate out, it was broken in half. We had moved this plate in all our Army moves, and then had it her for nearly 30 years, then when we wanted to give it to our kids, it was broken. Go figure.
We left Boise and returned to North Hollywood. We got settled into our little house and began our lives together. We lived there until the following mid February. I was working full time and going to school at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys. I had transferred there when I started with the Airlines, but because I transferred so late I couldn’t get enough credits to maintain my student deferment from the military draft. Just six months after we were married, I received a letter that started out, “Greetings from the President”. I had been drafted into the United States Army. I later enlisted to “beat” the draft. On February 26, 1969 I became a buck private and began my basic training at Fort Ord, California. TO BE CONTINUED:
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I can't wait for the next installment! Some of this stuff I never heard...It's awesome! Thanks Pops for sharing!!
Love you,
Hilary
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