Engagement

Grandma said she wanted to marry a farmer. (having grown-up milking cows at 4AM, at first I wanted to laugh and ask if she was crazy, but I asked her reasoning and it sounds like a good fit and pretty smart to me) She wanted to have a horse and a place for her family to learn to work. So it worked out well that Grandpa fit the bill. According to Grandma's diminishing memory they just went out alot, and spent enough time together that things just went that way. She said there was no real point of engagement, but it just seemed to evolve into the fact that they would get married.

Grandpa got Grandma the ring for Christmas in 1950. He had served in the military with a Needham boy(whose family owned Needham Jewelers in Logan) and became close friends. His friend had told him that if he ever got to the point of needing a ring, to come to him and he would give him a good deal. Since he is a Clark and can never pass up a good deal, that is where he went. Grandpa picked out the ring, and Grandma thinks he didn't fuss over it much and just got the one that fit the price. The above picture is not the actual ring, but it is a remake with the original diamonds. The actual ring had one larger diamond with a couple smaller diamonds on the sides and a band that went next to it with diamonds on it as well.

Grandma got the ring on Christmas Eve and they became "officially engaged." She knew that is what she was getting for Christmas. Although there was no real "Will you marry me?"proposal, if there was a time that was close to them officially deciding to get married, it was one night they had gone up to Grandma's family's place in Logan one weekend, and gone on a drive up Logan Canyon to first dam and talked there. Grandma said she never had second thoughts, she just knew that marrying Grandpa was the right thing to do.

How Grandma met Grandpa

This is Kasey. I have wanted for sometime to know more about my Grandpa. I thought of putting together a video of Grandma and a few others talking about him, and then showing it at a family reunion or something. But lets be honest...I haven't made it to a family reunion since I got married(1 of my 2 regrets of having other adventures) And I'm not sure my time left here will be enough to finish a video. Plus I don't have much experience making videos. So instead, I've decided to ask Grandma a few questions and write about it on this blog. Blogs are good for story telling and recording things anyway, so if any one else wants to add stories about Grandpa or anything else, please do. (Patrice, I'd love if you wrote about telling your dad "I love you" before he passed on....or your other funny stories like when Paul scared the daylights out of you when you went to the barn to get milk one night) This way others in our family can find out about each other and the Grandpa that most of us cousins never met. So here is the first question:

How did you meet Grandpa?

Grandma attended USU and was graduating with a Education Degree in Home Economics. Grandma had done her student teaching in Morgan early in the year in 1949. That is when she came to know Morgan. She next went to the Netherlands on an exchange program and returned on Nov 2. At that time there were 2 openings for extention jobs, one in Morgan and one in Tooele. Because she had been to Morgan before, it was assumed she would go to Morgan. She traveled up to come work in Morgan on December 1st, 1949. On December 18th there was a mutual dance activity. Grandpa had been attending the fall school term at BYU. He had come home and attended the dance. Grandma and Grandpa were the only ones in their age group and they danced and that is the first time they met. Though Grandma doesn't remember the specifics about how she felt, she didn't think it was just love at first sight, but she was glad that there was someone to dance with her. They continued to do things together over the next school term when Grandpa came home from school. The next summer they spent more time together, especially on Wednesdays when they got off early from work and would go to Como to swim. They were engaged at the end of the year(but that's another story) and married in the next summer.