Author: Ronald Guenther
Written: March 2, 2014

Well, pop was smitten with mom and of course, mom with pop.  Grandpa Sam had done his best to to stop the courtship, but to no avail.  For the first time in his life, pop went against his father’s wishes.  Moreover, he got a job with the biggest grocery store in North Bend, I believe it was called Dunham’s Grocery but I may be wrong about the name, then the two of them got a small apartment in North Bend.  Grandpa Sam never got on the boat to South America, the property was lost.  He did decide to wait around and see the outcome.  He actually forbade pop to marry but that carried no weight, either.  To get enough money to buy an engagement ring, he also worked, but only for a few days building the big North Bend – Coos Bay Bridge.  He spent the better part of Christmas Eve on the job keeping watch over a coffer dam that was protecting one of the pillars from going up.  It was cold, wet and rainy, but he bought the ring and quit that job, keeping the one with the grocer.  For the first time in his life, now, he had some money.  He did not simply turn over his pay check to his father.  They were engaged on Christmas Day, ring and all, and pop was ready to set the date.  Grandpa JB suggested that they go slow  and get to know each other..

He was actually afraid of his father in many respects as were the two sisters, Berchion and Noma.  I remember one time when he was feeling low talking about his father and I said, “Don’t worry, pop, your father is in heaven.”  Pop just blurted out, “No, he ain’t!!”  Pop was always a bit superstitious.  I think he thought after he crossed to the other side on the way up to the pearly gates, he was going to meet his father and his father would say something like,”Come with me, John.  The way you have in mind is dark, poorly lit and cold and it is all up hill.  I have a better way.  The road is downhill, well lit, shady, easy and when you get there, you will find a nice warm place.”  And so maybe he would not resist his father again and head on down.  Whatever the reason was, meeting up with his father was going to be a chancy business.  There was a little bit of a hindrance to their marriage, though.  Mom told pop that she would never marry anyone who was not a Catholic.  That made the pickings rather slim out there in Coos River.  I only know of two families at the time who were Catholic, theirs and the Biasca family who married into the Messerle family.  I do not know if the Messerles were Catholic then or not, probably not coming from the part of Switzerland where they did, but anyway.  Meeting a Catholic out there was not so simple.  Actually, when I was a freshman in high school, the total number of Catholic kids out of a school of just over 600 at the time was less than ten and I knew them all.  That was quite a hurdle for previous boy friends, but no problem for pop.  He immediately signed up for lessons with Father Sheridan, the priest at Saint Monica’s parish.  Father Sheridan was a sport’s  fan and had seen pop play.  Years later, Bob and I met an older fellow that told us that in his opinion, pop was the best half back that Marshfield had ever had (that was 1950).  So, they talked sports the whole time and afterwards Father Sheridan told mom, “Well, we did not cover much ground in these lessons, but he is a good fellow and you will have to teach him what he needs to know.”  The fact is, pop never really did have a solid grasp of Catholicism, but anyway, he did the best he could.  He had seen what Aunt Molly had been up to and that was good enough.  Besides, none of the children took to Methodism, although their mother had been a Methodist and none of them wanted to have anything to do with the teachings of Swedenborg.  Pop was baptized and ready to set the date.  Go slow, said Grandpa JB.  Grandma Wilda was ready to get the show on the road.  Finally, they decided on a June date.

I forgot to tell one story that was a little funny.  When Grandpa JB moved his operation from Arago to Coos River, he took over the farm, moved his herd to the new place, but the house could not be moved in to for three months and so they rented a place in Eastside.  This was the first time mom had ever lived in town and so it was all quite different.  They also drove around Coos Bay (Marshfield) and mom was enthralled with all the red lights up there on the porches of many of the houses.  That was a big business in those years.  It was easy to go into that profession, too.  All you had to do was screw a red light into your porch and you were ready to go.  Mom thought it was so pretty that once when Grandma and Grandpa were out at the new farm, she bought a red light and screwed it into their porch as well and was right proud of herself.  Grandma and Grandpa came home and were appalled at what they saw.  Grandma took mom immediately into the house and Grandpa unscrewed the light and stamped it out right then and there.  Mom could not believe her eyes.  Why would they do such a thing.  They also never told her what was going on.  In those days and right up until about 1965, that was a big business in the bay area.  These were church going professionals.  Much later mom found out what it was all about but at 16, this was a big mystery to her.

Mom started getting ready for the wedding.  Pop went out to the ranch as often as possible, which really was every day.  The hired men got awfully tired of seeing his car.  He had the bad luck of always getting stuck and then Grandpa and the hired men would have to get in and push him out.  One time mom overheard one of the hired men talking to another one saying as they watched pop drive up, “Oh, no, here comes John, put on your work clothes.”  But it was a good time and mom enjoyed it and I think so did grandma and grandpa.

They were married in June.  We still have the wedding picture with all of pop sisters and their families there as well as mom’s family and so on.  Grandpa Sam had said if they ever got married he would not come to the wedding, but people there said, he did sneak in at the last minute and just after they were said to be husband and wife, he left and walked home.  Pop had bought an old car and they headed up to Florence for a couple of days for the honeymoon.  The motel where they stayed is still there.  At the time, it was considered to be a rather nice, swanky place.  Pop wanted to impress his young bride.  Now, it is not considered to be so upscale.

To be continued.