The Seeds of Love are Planted

The summer following my high school graduation was very eventful. My Uncle LeGrande (my dad's younger brother) and his wife, Aunt Myrt, treated me and my sister, Georgia, to a trip to Southern California. They had recently moved there with their two small children and were anxious to show us the sights of their new city. It was my first time to see the Pacific Ocean, or any ocean for that matter, to visit the famous San Juan Capistrano where the swallows return on the same day every year (we only saw pigeons and lots of them), to drive through Hollywood and Bel Air to see the homes of the rich and famous, to see all the stars on Sunset Boulevard, and eat for the first time in a cafeteria where you walk down a line of food and choose what you want to eat. It was a wonderful vacation for me before returning home to work.

Since I would be leaving for school in the fall, my parents decided to sell our house and move to a smaller one with less property to take care of. Only Georgia and J.D. would still be at home. They purchased a small home on Dearborn St. nead Stratford Road. There was only one bedroom, a kitchen, living room, and bathroom upstairs, and two finished bedrooms in the basement. Georgia and I shared one bedroom that summer and J.D. the other. Our new house was within a short walking distance to the church, Stratford Ward, and was closer to my work at the bakery. That was nice.

It was only a few weeks after moving that I was called to teach Junior Sunday School (Primary was held on a weekday). I remembered that special teacher I had had who made books for all of us and decided to do the same for my little class. I spent a lot of time cutting and pasting and writing reminders of each lesson I taught. It was fun for me even though it only lasted the three summer months. I continued to work the whole summer, putting away most of the money to pay for housing at BYU and only buying a few new clothes. My parents waived my paying room and board, as we were expected to do once we turned eighteen and were working, because I was saving for school. I don't think my sister thought that it was fair as she was paying her monthly "dues". But she was making a lot more money than me working in an office.

The best part of the summer was when Jim came home on leave from the Air Force. He had been gone for a year for basic training and to attend electronics school. He was going to be home the whole month of August before being shipped overseas to the Philippines. I heard that he was back, and really wanted to see him. But I knew he wouldn't make the first move to see me since we hadn't dated that last year he was in school, and I hadn't even written to him as a friend the whole year that he had been gone. Soooo....being the wuss that I was, I had my sister call him. She told him that she thought I would go out with him if he would ask. I was standing right next to her the whole time she was on the phone. Well, it only took a few minutes before the phone rang, and you can guess who it was. We went out that night and two or three nights a week the whole month of August. He took me to movies, to dinner, on walks, to the top of "I" street which looked over the whole valley, and invited me to his home for dinner. He introduced me Mexican food which I had never eaten before and which I found a little too hot(spicy) for my taste. There was only one Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake, Cordova's, and we went there several times as Jim assured me that the taste of Mexican food would "grow" on me. It took quite a while before I learned to really like it....only if it wasn't too hot. During that month Jim would often send me flowers. It wasn't until later that I discovered he was also sending them to another girl, Pat, a friend I knew and really liked. It seems that he had another "friend" that worked at a florist and would give him wholesale prices on the flowers if he bought enough. I guess he was covering all his bases just in case I got flakey again.

By the end of the summer we were getting pretty serious, but being the great guy that he was and still is, he told me that since he was going to be gone for two years, and I was going to school, he didn't want me to just sit around and wait. He wanted me to date and have a good time. I reluctantly agreed, believing I would be hard pressed to find anyone with whom I could have fun when I was feeling the way was about him. But I was young and Jim was young so I thought that this might be my chance to compare and be sure of my feelings. It was really hard to say good-bye when Jim left. Two years seemed like such a long, long time. But fortunatly the time for me to leave for school was just days away, and I was excited about starting a new adventure in my life.