"Clara"As I entered the Monticello High Gym I immediately saw the tall slim girl with the auburn hair, freckles on her nose and the flashing green eyes. She was looking right at me from across the dance hall. She looked fantastic.
Later I asked her to dance. She was a good dancer, but I could tell that she was very nervous as we started to dance. As we danced we talked; it didn’t take long for the nervousness to disappear and be replaced by a vivaciousness that was really exciting to me. Yep! This was an exceptional girl.
My friend, DeLoy Shumway, and I were at this dance in Monticello primarily because DeLoy had a crush on a Monticello girl. Her name was Doris. She and Deloy danced together most of the night.
After the dance was over we took Doris to her home. DeLoy invited her to stay with us and go for a ride. He owned a beautiful Cadillac. She agreed, but told us she would have to get her parents permission. When she came back from the house she told us her parents would let her go for half an hour only if her little sister accompanied us. They would not let her go alone with two boys. They asked me if that would be OK. I wasn’t going to go against DeLoy’s wishes….he owned my ride home!
When she and her little sister came out from the house Doris got in the back seat again with DeLoy, and the tall slim girl with auburn hair, freckles on her nose and flashing green
eyes, got in the front seat with me. “This is my sister Clare”, Doris said.
I have never been more surprised!
I kissed her that night and she was a seriously good kisser. I really liked this girl.
It was mid-summer when I bought my first car. It was a black 1939 Pontiac convertible, with red leather seats, a rumble seat, and a white top. Suddenly I had access to Monticello whenever I wanted to go.
I started going over to see “Clare” and we eventually started dating. Our dating usually involved doing something with Clare’s friend Ada May Jones, and my friend Donald Black, or with one of her other girlfriends and their boyfriend. Most of the time our “dating” involved doing something on Sunday afternoon. Remember, both Blanding and Monticello closed up the town at 6:00 PM.
We never made any kind of commitment to “go steady” during the summer. She knew I was going back to college in August. I had to be there early to start football practice. I expected to be very busy at school. My freshman year I only came home once, that was for Christmas day. We promised to write each other.
The game of football did not treat me well that season. I got my nose badly broken before season actually started, took a week off, and then got it broken even worse the first practice back. Back then we didn’t have face masks. The first game I got in was later in the season with Weber State. The ball was thrown to me and it got there the same time a big linebacker did. I was in bed for a week basically unable to move. They said I had a badly bruised kidney and I was out for the season. (Years later a cat scan showed three ribs, right
over the kidney, had been fractured and splinted inward and I had been very lucky.)
My athletic career, including basketball, at Carbon College that year was over but now I had time to go home on weekends and see “Clara”.
I learned that her name was Clara the first time she wrote a letter to me. I also had another big surprise when Tom Steele, who lived with me in the dorm, informed me that she was just a sophomore in high school. It was a good thing I had already kissed her a few times and was already hooked!
We started seriously dating during the summer of 1950. I was infatuated with this girl. The fact that she was only 16, and going to be a junior in high school, never entered my mind as a problem. As the summer progressed we got more and more serious. Finally, I asked her to marry me.
When I asked her to marry me I believe that I was thinking more in the long time future than she was. I wanted to lock this girl up while I was away at college. She wanted to get married. You know what happens when the girl decides to get married….you get married!
We were married October 2, 1950 in the Manti Temple.
In retrospect I wonder what ever possessed Clara’s parents that they would not only give her permission to
get married so young, but actually encouraged her to do so.
We had been married for about two weeks when the shock of our lives came in the mail. I had been drafted into the Army and was to report on November 20, 1950 at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City.
I left Clara in our apartment in Blanding with our car, which was now a 1941 Chevy Club Coupe, and no money. She moved back to Monticello with her parents and sold the car. I was sent to 6 weeks of basic training in Fort Riley, Kansas,
The day before Christmas we had been in the field all day training and it was dark when we got back. I had just entered the barracks when a messenger came in and said I was wanted in the office. When I entered the office there was Clara.
Clara had bribed Doris to accompany her to Kansas to see me. They had gone to Thompson and boarded a train to Kansas and already found a room in a private home in Junction City. We were able to spend our first Christmas together.
Junction City was closed Christmas day. We finally found hot dogs at the movie theatre. Clara and Doris headed back home late Christmas day.
At the end of my 6 weeks basic training I was transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas to an electronics school. Clara’s parents brought her to El Paso, Texas, and we became residents for the next two years.
That draft notice, which seemed to be such a hardship in the beginning, was really a blessing in disguise. We were in a strange place, a long way from home, and had only each other to depend on. We had to grow up fast, but it enabled us to start to build a strong stable marriage, with good values and trust, that has lasted us for almost 60 years now.
We suffered through bad times, but had a lot of fun during the good times. Finances were our biggest problem. My army pay of $83.00 a month didn’t go far. I always lived off base and we got some money for that. We became adept at using our money wisely but there were times I would sneak into the chow lines to have dinner because we didn’t have enough food for both of us at home.
I only saw Clara one time feeling bad about the life she was missing by being married so young. The night of her high school Junior Prom I found her sobbing.
We had two couples who were our best friends. Their names were Bob and Elda, and Dan and LaVeen. The guys were my classmates at school and they both were assigned to the school maintenance pool at Ft Bliss after we completed the 52 week electronics school. We had a lot of fun together.
I was assigned to Ft Bliss as an instructor in the school. We lived off base and my job simply meant I went to work every morning at eight, and went home every night at five. I had no other relationship with the Army.
While I pursued my “chosen” career in the army Clara got a job as a secretary for the man who managed the largest office building in El Paso. Our finances improved over time and we lived a good life. Still poor…but happier.
Every time we went home on leave we would move out of our apartment so we would have the money to come home. We could move in a Taxi Cab. We would find a new apartment when we got back. Clara’s dad gave us a car the second time we got back home. It was a 1940 Buick that wasn’t running. I fixed it and it lasted us until we left El Paso. Later Clara went to work for a radio station (there was no TV in El Paso yet). She did the daily logs for the announcers. She enjoyed that job and worked there until her pregnancy with Michael caused her to leave it.
Michael Don was born in the William Beaumont Army Hospital, El Paso Texas, on August 7, 1952. Clara had a very long and difficult birth with Mike. She was in labor for 32 hours, in an Army hospital that wouldn’t let me see her. My mother came and stayed with Clara to help after the birth.
Our two year draft was up in November 1952 and we two dumb kids, now with a 3 month old baby of our own, traded in the old Buick for a 1949 Ford and happily headed home.
Our car was totally loaded down. We had enough room to make Mike a bed right behind the front seat. He slept all day very peacefully as we traveled. At Gallup it was just getting dark and it started to snow. We kept moving…….it never snows very hard down there! Soon we were in about 6 inches of new snow. I could drive only by watching the shoulders on the road. No one else was on the highway. We had to keep going. We finally got into Shiprock and got the first Motel we came to. What a relief after such a nerve wracking day.
Mike woke up…..he was obviously well rested and ready to stay awake but we didn’t have enough sense to realize that was his problem. Clara was sure he was going to die. I was pretty sure Clara was going to have a nervous breakdown. She treated him for every disease she could think of but he just kept crying and wouldn’t go to sleep.
Clara got on the phone to her mother just sobbing with worry. Her mother quickly diagnosed the problem but even after we knew that Mike just wasn’t sleepy, we were. We took turns walking the floor with him the rest of the night as the other slept.
Amy got Joe and they came to Shiprock early the next morning. Clara took Mike into Joe’s car with her mother and we all headed for Monticello. Mike slept all the way!
Our life in the United States Army was over!
Claire Today November 2009.
Mom is doing about as we would expect her to be doing, she is slowly inching downward. People who don’t know her well, or don’t know about her health problems are surprised to learn she has Alzheimer’s. She still visits well with people, especially one-on-one. In a group however, she seldom speaks.
She has pretty well shut down her cooking other than an occasional main course or a salad. We buy a lot of frozen entrees and deli meals. She always wants to go out and get a Cheese Burger. She will eat those twice a day. It works for her....I’m getting fat and she is staying thin.
We spend a lot of time together just talking. Our back patio is a beautiful private place and we spend most of our day sometimes out there. She wants me to be with her and she gets nervous when I am not. Rocky is her dog and she loves him like she would a small child, although I don’t remember our small children being treated that liberally. He takes a lot of pressure off me. He is her buddy.
Her short term memory is failing fast. She doesn’t remember anything for long. Information just never gets into her memory for her to keep. The hardest thing for me is to stay cool and informative, and nice, when she asks me the same question about every half hour. For example; The shooting of the 13 soldiers at Fort Hood has been the news headlines ever since it happened. In our house every time it comes on in the news she gets all excited and wants to know what happened. I treat the subject as if it is new news because to her it is.....every time.
Having Jean and Chuck here has been a real blessing. They live across town about 20 minutes away. We don’t see them often, probably once a week or so. Mom is determined not to become dependent on Jean to provide her with her only friend. Mom knows that Jean is close and that brings a great amount of comfort to her.
When Sharley was here last summer she went through Mom’s pantry and got it all organized. The shelves are all labeled with a place for everything. I sort of grinned when I heard of the project....Mom has never been the most organized person,.... but Sharley, I want you to know that the system really works. One of the reasons it works is because I continually put things in their proper places, and the other reason it works is because your grandmother can actually find what she is looking for and doesn’t buy another one. ( I think you must have noticed all the multiple jars of Mayo, ketchup, mustard and stuff like that we had in the pantry.)
Speaking of buying, I go with her to do all of our grocery shopping. She doesn’t want to go without me although she still wants to be in charge of the expedition. That’s OK with me. I hold veto power and so am always pulling stuff out of the cart and telling her we already have some at home. This is a good system...we are both happy.
Last week my auto insurance company told me I had to register my cars in Utah and get a Utah drivers license or else. Mom and I went to get new Utah drivers licenses. We had to take a written test. Mom panicked.....she knew she couldn’t do it. We got her Arizona license back and will renew it in Ariz in January for another 5 years.
Yes she is still driving and does well at it. She needs the ability to get around to her activities and friends in the Church and the neighborhood. I encourage her to get out whenever possible. Her friends know her problem and will always pick her up to go very far. However, her circle is shrinking. She still goes visiting teaching, she is on the enrichment committee, and the ward activities committee. I make sure they don’t forget her.
Please remember that any messages you leave with Mom may never be seen or heard from again. I need to be told what you need her, or us to remember or do. She never reads e-mail so that is a good way to communicate with me, just don’t leave her out of the loop though. She knows when that happens.
I will write again in a few months
