This afternoon I was making smoothies in my kitchen and thought back to a day in 1976 when I first learned how good cutting up fruit and blending it up could be.
Suzi surprised us all by bringing this mystery man, Dave Brough, to marry (instead of her missionary in Germany, to whom even I wrote letters. Ironically, I married a man who served his mission in Germany 11 years later). Dave was wonderful and we all could see how Suzi would want to spend the rest of her life (and eternity) with him. It wasn't easy for me to give up my aunt Suzi to just anybody. I remember not liking it when Suzi would bring a guy with her to church and he'd sit with us on the row. I'd want her all to myself. I realized that Suzi getting married would end all the girl talk we'd had, so I was hoping this guy was worth it. I checked him out in grandma's kitchen, had a little conversation with some cousins, and concluded that he was going to be just fine. And the reality was that I got plenty of girl talk with Suzi afterward -- for many years to come.
They were married in the Oakland temple in the evening (I remember thinking that was so neat that they had city lights from San Francisco in their wedding pictures). They wed on July 16, 1976. The bicentennial celebration had just taken place and Suzi decided to continue with that them with Red, White, and Blue as her colors. Grandma and Grandpa's house on 1000 Center Valley Road in Willits never looked so good before nor since. Every inch of that fence was painted bright white, the house newly painted too. Grandma and Grandpa bought a new poofy green sofa and love seat and had really neat shag green carpet. The yard looked perfect and tables, chairs, and an arch w/flowers were brought into the front yard for the reception. The photo that my parents have in their home today of that house is from Suzi's reception. It just sparkled.
I spent the day in the kitchen at Grandma's house under the tutelage of Aunt Susan, who was in charge of the food. I remember cutting up and peeling lots of fruit with my cousins. At the end of setting all the cut fruit into beautiful patterns on the trays, Susan took the not-so-pretty fruit and peels and threw them into the blender. I wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but when she offered me some to drink, I was in heaven. I didn't know that left-over fruit could be so good! Susan knew exactly what she was doing in that kitchen and I marveled watching her.
JoAnn and Suzie were there from Oregon. We were so excited to dress in our matching blue dresses. They were almost tie-dyed dusty blue cotton knit with hoods. We thought we were the coolest. We called ourselves "hoods." I think Rhonda and Becky had similar dresses.
I'd love to hear everyone else's memories from this time. I was only 12, but I have such fond memories of that day.
I remember being there and recall how cool Grandma and Grandpa's house looked. I think my mom wore a patriotic dress, all red white and blue stripes maybe? Another thing I remember was while the wedding was going on, a lot of us cousins were at a home of some relative in Orinda California, where we were waiting for those who went to the temple to return. Was Cynthia just a baby then? I remember there was a baby there who was missing her mom.
ReplyDeleteI remember thinking, here we are, a bunch of cousins without adult supervision somewhere in the bay area and the infamous "Zodiac Killer" was still at large. What were our parents thinking? We all made it just fine and got back to Willits and a nice reception.