NEWLYWED REPAIRSReceived

NEWLYWED REPAIRS

Received from my friend, Jackie:

Newlywed Repairs

A man came home from the office and found his new bride
sobbing convulsively. "I feel terrible," she told him. "I
was pressing your suit and I burned a big hole in the seat
of your trousers."

"Oh, just forget it," consoled her husband. "Remember that
I've got an extra pair of pants for that suit."

"Yes, I know. And it's lucky you have!" said the woman,
drying her eyes. "I was able to use a piece from them to
patch the hole!"

Received from Thomas Ellsworth.

In case you can't tell, my theme today is engagement/marriage. I always enjoy hearing how couples have met. It occurred to me that perhaps readers might like to hear how my late husband Steve and I met, 40 years ago now. (I know that perhaps it always seems like I live in the past, but isn't that what elderly people do?) ;-)

I lived in southwest Portland, Oregon at the time, and I was a devout Mormon. I had not long before returned from a freshman semester at Brigham Young University, no doubt the most famous LDS university, thanks to my parents being unable to afford to keep me there. I was needed to come home and work. One of my main recreational activities at that time was going to Mormon young adult events, kind of killing time until I could afford to go back to college, as both my parents and I were determined that a college graduation should be in my future.

I went to a young adult "fireside" -- Sunday evening meeting with a special speaker -- at the LDS church in the town of Woodburn, Oregon, but I was somewhat early because I held some special position (I can't remember what now), and I sat in a short row of other young people that I recall being the last row of just a few. In the row ahead of me sat a nice-looking, red-headed young man, who turned around and smiled at me. I liked that. After the regular fireside, we lined up for refreshments, and in an uncharacteristically daring move, I cut in front of the handsome red-head. He laughed and said, "You cut in front of me!" I just laughed and said something inspiring and clever (ha ha) along the lines of, "I know."

So that was how Steve and I met. We saw each other later at young adult dances and danced together. At one of them, he suggested we go for a walk, and we held hands, which I thought felt very nice, and found a bench, where we sat and talked. Among the things he said was the comment that, when he was married, he would put more priority on having nice clothes than on food. I agreed. (Boy, were we a couple of dummies!)

I can't remember the exact nature of our dating the first couple of months, but after about 2 months, I felt that he was getting too serious (remember, I planned to go back to college) and I broke off our dating relationship. But he sent me a letter, which I still have someplace, where he talked about things that meant a lot to him, and one of them was pearls. He said, "Sue, you are a pearl." I was impressed and touched.

Not long after that, I saw him at a church dance and I tried to avoid him as I was shaking, but he wouldn't allow that and went out of his way to say "hi." Then he asked me to dance. I still was shaking. I told him that I had felt like someone put a knife in my heart. He said, "You put it there, Sue."

Not long after, Steve took me out to the farm where I now live to meet his parents. He called his mother on the way out from Portland, knowing it would panic her out. It did. I had a nice time meeting his folks and walking around the farm, although I was suffering from a cold that day. We went back to his apartment and just enjoyed being together. Sometime that evening, he got down on his knees and asked me to marry him. I said, "Yes."

Those who know Steve will probably think this sounds pretty typical of him, but later on, he told me that his thought process during the day at the farm had been to notice that I had bad breath because of my cold, plus that I was flat-chested, but he figured that this was probably the worst it would get, so why not marry me? LOL! He also later denied that he had asked me to marry him, and especially that he had gotten down on his knees; he insisted that I had asked him as we were riding along in the car and he had figured, "Why not?" He was not convinced by the fact that I had told my sister, Jo, about it that night when I got home, and she corroborated my version. I guess his pride wouldn't let him admit it. LOL!

We met in September of 1967 and married in the Oakland, California Mormon Temple in June of 1968, so it was a relatively quick courtship. (Steve was just a month short of the required year's membership in the Mormon Church to be married in the temple but he was allowed to do so despite that.) Anyway, now you know the story of how Steve and I got together. I leave it to your own judgment to decide who you think was telling the truth about the proposal.

*****

Somewhat along these lines, I watched "27 Dresses" Saturday afternoon. It stars Katherine Heigl, who I have enjoyed on "Grey's Anatomy." I liked the movie quite well -- at least, it was a distraction from my concerns of the moment. The story is about Heigl's character, the perpetual bridesmaid, who is in love with her boss but he doesn't seem to know she's alive other than as a great assistant, and she also is super at helping her friends put together their weddings in addition to being a bridesmaid at the events. All is going along as usual until her younger sister comes to New York and meets her boss and the two fall in love, with Heigl's character of course being required to put together the perfect wedding. Complicating things was Heigl's meeting a commitment phobic man who turns out to be someone he hadn't admitted to be, resulting in unanticipated difficulties for her. As you can see by the fact that I didn't remember these characters' names, I may not have been all that into the movie, but it was all right. I will probably give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5 on Blockbuster.