2: The Picnic (Part I and II)

Part I

Jeanie and I dated at Halfway High School over 4 years, going steady my senior year.  Jeanie was a sophomore and I was a mighty senior! It was spring and we were planning to go on a picnic in a couple of weeks. We agreed on a beautiful location we had been to before. I was excited as always to go on a picnic with the sweetest girl in the world. (I really had it bad.) 

One week before the picnic, I was picking wild blueberries for my mom to make homemade blueberry pies. I am highly allergic to Poison Ivy intertwined with the blueberry bushes. In just three days, I was breaking out everywhere I didn’t have on clothes. Luckily, the wild blueberries had thorns, and I had worn long sleeves and gloves.  

What’s the worst thing that can happen? YUP – it was all over my face. Big blisters, the poison oozing out of my face that was caked white from calamine lotion. It oozed right through the dried white lotion making me look, well, like a walking zombie. I didn’t go to school for the three days before the picnic. The picnic was out of the question! I asked my sister Pat to take a note to Jeanie during school on Thursday stating that the picnic was impossible. No way! I was miserable-looking and in pain.  

On that Friday, Pat gave me Jeanie’s reply. It blew me away! In large, dark letters Jeanie said she wanted me to pick her up Saturday for a picnic at the appointed time, no excuses! This was really far out for Jeanie. Pat said I looked like the walking dead, but I had better go or Jeanie would be hurt and upset.  

In school on Friday, Pat told Jeanie the picnic was on with my reservations. We didn’t have phones, cell phones, email, or texts. It was by notes, postage, face-to-face communication, or smoke signals.  

On that warm, spring day, I drove the blue 1956 pickup truck we had gone in for so many dates before. I picked up Jeanie, driving from my trailer home in Brownlee, 12 miles along the Snake River, to her trailer home at Oxbow, Oregon. We were mature 16 and 18-year-olds, meaning we were making our own plans for the future without expecting any financial support for college or otherwise from our parents. We had our special picnic (right out of a romantic movie) with a great view of the snow-capped mountains and a beautiful mountain lake. I remember everything to this day as Jeanie and I recently laughed and talked about this time together. In the pickup, Jeanie moved over nearer to me, up close with all the ugliness and  oozing Poison Ivy on my face. I was getting a little uncomfortable knowing what I looked like. AND! AND - Jeanie leaned over and kissed me fully on my lips twice (the only place without Poison Ivy). WOW! At that very moment in the universe, I thought of nothing else but the firm kisses and big hug. She said she knew the goodness of my heart. While my mind was going ballistic, my main thought was that I was going to marry this girl someday. It was four years later that we were married for time and all eternity in the Logan Temple. Nine years after our first date at my eighth-grade graduation. 

Part II

Going to a small school in Halfway was fun and engaging but to marry someone you met in grade school, high school, or some college was NOT in my thinking, whatsoever. I never thought it was even a possibility. Jeanie and I were in love in high school, but was it truly a mature love? Dating in the eighth grade was just puppy love. The “first kiss” was special. As you mature, your love is an exponential love! It takes off like a rocket and your love never stops increasing.  

From the eighth grade (14 and 12) in 1956 through high school (18 and 16) and getting married in college (22 and 20), we had nine years off and on going steady, dating other people, going to college, and becoming engaged. We married on June 5, 1964, in the Logan Temple while we were going to BYU together.  

Some asked how we kept our feelings alive for each other. We did it by dating and keeping in touch. We wrote over 200 letters to each other. I mean “real” love letters! (We still have all of the letters from almost 60 years ago.) Dating again and again, twice a year, a visit to each other's homes (1,000 miles away), engagement, and marriage. Some were bolder and asked if I ever wanted us to sleep together or have heavy kissing. (YES! But, I didn’t!)

My main method to control my biological drive was cold showers, respect for Jeanie’s LDS Standards, and just going home sooner than expected. :) Something important to consider: I was baptized January 21, 1961, in the LDS Church and advanced in the priesthood to an Elder a year before we were married. This priesthood gave us both strength in matters that we discussed above.  

The night before our temple marriage, we drove to Logan, Utah on our own. We rented one room with two beds to save money for our brief honeymoon in Sun Valley, Idaho. A close friend said, “Isn’t that taking a chance the night before your marriage in the temple?” I explained in “NO UNCERTAIN TERMS” that we hadn’t given into temptation for nine years of dating. There was no way we were going to do anything the night before we were married in the temple! We had special prayers with our Heavenly Father about what we wanted at the end of our ten months of engagement. We got married. The Lord knows best in these matters of the heart. Just ask for his help.