What I did on my summer vacation...1976

Per Lisa's request - she wanted to know what I did between high school graduation and marriage:

Well, in those few months between June and November, I helped put the finishing touches on my wedding. Yup, I got married the November after graduating.

Very early on in my little girl life I decided that I wanted to be a mom when I grew up. I also decided I would never marry. I had seen enough of that and wanted nothing to do with it. Now back in the day single women did not rear children. That was unthinkable! If by chance some poor little thing was taken advantage of or had a huge laps in judgement she was shipped off to an aunt in the midwest and the situation was quietly taken care of. I knew this. I was nothing if not observant as a kid. I saw that After School Special played out a few times and I knew enough not get involved in that way with anyone! But I was also pretty naive and had not had "the talk" with dear ol' mom, so although I knew a boy would be involved, I wasn't exactly sure about Slot A and Tab B.

By the time I "grew up" I had a goal.."kids sans husband". How to do this? Well like I said I was observant and noticed that those with money got pretty much anything they wanted, even when it broke the rules. I would go to school and do what my parents wanted me to do, then go back to school and become a commercial artist, live at the beach, and eventually have enough money and go by me some kids. I would adopt. I would be rich and no one would stop me. That was the plan.

Then in the summer of my 15th year Thor's parents moved to our small little town. He would enter his Senior year in a brand new school, and he wasn't super keen on the idea, but it was a move to help the little girls in the family and give them a better neighborhood than they had in the old town. So move they did.

Thor and I met that summer; and by the following New Year's Eve we had our first date. By February I knew my plans of never being married would be done with. I was in loooove!

Side-bar: In Thor's family everyone had a habit of marrying young...YOUNG. Mom hit the alter at 16, and the older brothers all went forth at the ages of 17 and 18. That said, his parents had a happy marriage and the older brothers seemed to be doing just fine too.

So we dated, steady-eddies until I was a Senior myself and would graduate. Although this broke the previous tradition, even in love I wasn't stupid enough to graduate as a married lady; so we waited. He was 19, I was 18; and on November 12 (the 12th of "never"), we were married in the Los Angeles Temple. After two years of honeymoon time we began having all those kids I wanted. They came like clockwork every two years for eight years, and then we took a three year hiatus and were delightfully surprised by #5 after Thor took a job at a broken Nuclear Power Plant.

I never went to school to be what my parents wanted me to be, I never got rich enough to live at the beach, but I got the best wish of my childhood and Thor to boot. I did pretty well for myself.

That's the short story. Here's a slightly longer version for those truly bored.

We met in church. I was assigned the youth talk for that summer Sunday and I wore a dress I had made earlier that spring while I was sick and home from school for 7 months. I was very ill and had lost so much weight I was probably about 92 pounds when Thor first laid eyes on me in an "India Print" gauze dress, with elephants dyed and marching along the hem. I had -to my waist- straight as a board- dark brown hair and he was the new boy. He was skinny and shorter than most of the guys, but he had a great big smile and the prettiest green eyes you ever saw. Plus, this new guy had shoulders on him like a mack truck. They were huge and broad. He had the thickest brown hair and goofy clothes. He was the sweetest, most dear boy I knew. I trusted him immediately and worried that all the other girls would sweep him away and I would never get a chance to even talk with him. We officially met when he offered me his seat in Sunday school class, which I took, then thought how bold I was, got embarrassed and left the room changing classes for the next 5 months.

Our first date was News Year's Eve at the church dance. He was almost two hours late and I thought he stood me up. But he showed up, we danced, and then we sat by each other on the bus that would drive the ward down to the Rose Parade. We talked the entire trip while everyone else slept. By the time we arrived everyone woke up and Thor and I fell asleep and never saw a single float go by. The Bishop joked that "Now you need to get married, you slept together on the first date!" ha ha. Not so much, I was mortified. This was my first date with the guy and back then (hard to believe but true) I was SHY. Very SHY and not so confident. This was humiliating and everyone laughed! Oh well, it was prophetic. The stars were set and everyone saw it before we did.

So there you go. My Summer essay. Hope I get an "A"!