The Flame Begins to Flicker

The trip to California on a Greyhound bus seemed long and boring. There was really no one to talk to because I was traveling alone and no one interesting occupied the seat next to me. Christmas with my family had been special as usual, but the "high" of preparing for and celebrating on that day was beginning to wear off. But I was excited about taking my first trip to California, Walnut Creek in northern California, even if it was by myself. And I was anxious to see Nick and his family again. They had invited me to come down during Christmas break, and I had saved my money so I could go. Looking back I can't believe my parents would even consider letting me travel alone at age fifteen.

The first thing that struck me when I arrived at the Snel house was the Christmas tree. It was not very large, but what seemed strange to me was the type of tree it was. I had never seen one like it before. It was one of those that had a single ring of branches around the trunk, then a space of bare trunk and then another ring of branches. etc. etc. I don't know the name of that kind of pine tree, but to me it looked so bare and ugly. I thought, "they must really be struggling financially not to be able to buy a nice tree." I've since found out that this style of tree is not necessarily cheap, just different, and I guess some people like them.

I actually don't remember a whole lot about what we did while I was there. I know that Nick was working at a theater as an usher. Back then movie theaters actually had ushers that used flashlights to usher patrons to their seats. No more! I remember that he gave me a set of dishes that he had won in some incentive program at his work and a record (no CDs or tapes back then) of Mario Lanza, my favorite singer who was also an actor. He sang light opera and performed in several movies before he died at a young age. What I remember most was that I just didn't have that good a time...the spark just wasn't there anymore. When I got back home I gave the dishes away, but I did listen to the record a lot. I still like Mario Lanza.

Eventually I quit writing, and so did he. When Jim saw that I was dating other guys, he asked me out more often, usually to group activities. We would go to the drive-in movies with friends (one time we drove our car in backwards and told the man at the ticket booth that we were just going out. He laughed and let us in free), play "tag" in cars (we only did that once because we were almost in an accident. Jim was driving...very dangerous play), to seminary parties at Saratoga Springs (a favorite resort and swimming pool), to parties of mutual friends and church firesides. During one fireside in January it snowed so hard that all the cars were snowed in. No one could get out, so everyone there had to spend the night. That turned out to be a fun night. We had a lot of common friends because we all attended church together. Some of those mutual friends were Leah Rae Green after whom our own Lea was named, and the Maxfield triplets, Merrill, Dick and Geniel. He was best friends with Dick and Merrill while Geniel was one of mine.

I always had fun when I went out with Jim, even though he was a little wild when he was a teenager. He used to see how fast he could drive to Brigham City (sometimes cutting school) to see a girl he knew there. I was never went with him on those trips, however, but he would let me know when he had set a new record. I wasn't impressed. I thought he was pretty stupid to risk getting a ticket or losing his life. I wasn't with him either when he rolled the car one night while driving down a canyon road. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, but the car didn't fare so well. There were times when I thought I should just wait a while to date him until he grew up a bit. Our off and on dates continued into my junior year. You can tell that nothing serious was developing by his entry in my yearbook.
"Jonita (no dear),
Writing in your book brings back a lot of pleasant memories dating about three
years. We had a lot of fun and it was great knowing you and your whole family.
Well, I'll be seeing you around. Best wishes in the future.
As always,
Jim Mortensen"

Jim was then a senior and was planning to join the Air Force, so I knew I wouldn't be seeing him for a while. That made me a little sad, but I was still young, and there was still time.