"The Engagement Story" by Gladys

The following is Grandma telling about their engagement in her own words (from an interview I had with her in 1989.)

Clyde and I started going together quite often, and he loved Mother's cooking. He was there to dinner almost all the time. Mother could make a good dinner out of practically nothing. Oh, she made the best gravy and the best roast and things. He was there a lot … We saw each other a lot.

We didn't talk too much of marriage for quite awhile, but then one time, he gave me ring. We were in the house, not in a romantic spot at all, but we were there alone. We were sitting on the sofa together and he brought this box out. I didn't know for sure whether to take it or not! I didn't know for sure if I loved him. I thought I did! But sometimes, you know . . . I'd gone with him a long time, and so I should have been sure. And I hadn't been going out with anyone else since I went with him, that is, since I went steady with him.

It was a little Depression ring, but it was surely pretty. It was yellow gold, and it had three diamonds that went step up, step up, step up on the side and one in the center. Many, many years later he bought me a new ring and had the diamonds taken out and set in a new one. We were going to have that one--the engagement ring and the wedding ring--put together. We left it at the jewelers, and they lost it. And I felt so bad. Of course, I've loved the one he got me, too.

But anyway, it was on a Saturday night. When I went to church the next day, I had that ring. All my friends, they were so excited about it. Of course, two of them had rings. And they were all so excited. "When's it going to be?" This just would have been in February. We didn't really know ourselves!

We had to kind of wait until we got enough money saved up. We hadn't planned on saving, and we'd been spending a lot. We didn't have much in savings either, and every penny I made I gave to Mother. So, I didn't have anything saved.

But, we decided on June. He hadn't been going to church for a long time, and was just a priest--he'd never been made an elder. But my bishop was willing to give us both a [temple] recommend, but Clyde didn't think it was right. He felt as though he hadn't really been doing the things he should to go, so we decided we would wait a little bit for the temple. We just had a simple marriage at home; Noreen and Dale stood up with us. The bishop married us; he lived right down the road. [We were married at] my house. Mother had a dinner for the family. We didn't have a big reception or anything. We went to the temple quite a few years after . . . in '55.