From '68 to 68

It was 1968. The Summer of Love. President Johnson had just announced he would not seek another term in office and there was excitement about a new direction for the country. Then Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, dashing the hopes for black equality. My favorite candidate for president, Robert Kennedy was gunned down the day before my 15th birthday. There were riots in the streets. The National Guard had fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Ohio, killing some and injuring others. It was a scary time for America.

But I had just turned 15 and had my whole life planned out. I was going to be a geologist. Though still in junior high, I had enrolled in a summer science class at Bountiful High that promised to take me on geology field trips where I would learn all about fossils, minerals, and- just maybe - I could find my own dinosaur. I was such a geek.

Part of my plan was to earn enough money to pay for my own schooling so I got a real job. I was bussing tables and washing dishes at Francesco's. I was making a whopping $1.10 an hour. If I worked enough hours, I was able to buy my own clothes at Keith O'Brien's and was able to pay for the summer science class.

The science class was already everything I hoped it would be. I had learned all about Lake Bonneville, had found my own brachiopods, and now found myself on a ridgetop east of Coalville hunting for fossil oysters. Two of my friends were with me and we ran into two girls who were also part of the class. I recognized one of them. She was the same girl who I had seen the year before singing a solo at South Davis Junior High. She was 16 and in high school now (she could drive!) with long brown hair and soft brown eyes. She was my dream girl and there she was (sigh) BUT she was hanging out now with my friend Cliff who was showing off the fossils he had found. 

By the time we were heading back home in the bus, Cliff was sitting with her while I was sitting with her friend. As she got off the bus at Grand Central to walk home, Cliff started telling me how cool she was and that she was now his girlfriend. I was crushed. Had I blown it already? I hardly got to say two words to her. I vowed that I would figure out where she lived and would sit by her on the next field trip. 

That was the beginning. We sat next to each other on every next trip. We sat next to each other in class and pretty soon she was my girlfriend - Cliff was not my friend anymore, but it was a good trade. We would go on to date each other until I graduated from high school when we got married. It has now been 52 years since that summer and I still get to sit by her all the time. 

Today is her birthday. I am so glad that I met her when I did. We have grown up together and learned a whole lot during that time. We have had six kids together of our own and added two more to our family. Each of these has brought us great joy and now we are blessed with more grandkids than we can count, many of whom are now older than we were when we first met.

I am not a geologist. but I got my dream anyway. Happy Birthday Janene . My Dream Girl.