I met Bill when I was 18 years old he was 26. He would tell you that we met a year earlier, but I don’t remember that meeting. I was 17 and not happy about having to spend my summer in a small town, in North Dakota. I remember being at the pizza place that night but I don’t remember Bill. He claims to have thought about me often after that meeting. Was that when our souls were negotiating our future? My dad first met Bill in the early 80’s, they were in the same small, local, union out of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The summer after North Dakota, my dad took a job in St. Joseph, Missouri. Being that I didn’t have any idea of what I wanted to do after graduating from high school, I went to Missouri with my parents and sister. We spent the summer in St. Joe, my dad wasn’t happy with the job he had so, he decided to go back to welding and went looking for work. That search led him to Delta, Utah. As I still had no plan for my life, I tagged along with my family. Labor Day weekend, we loaded up a 40 foot travel trailer and with me driving a 1970 something Audi Fox and my mother driving a Jeep C-J5, Dad pulling the trailer, we headed west.
The trip was mostly uneventful except for a scary moment going over I-70. I was the caboose in our small train. As we headed up over Eisenhower tunnel, my car vapor locked just as my parents vehicles went into the tunnel. I was able to get my car off the road and hoped that my mom and dad would notice that I was not following them any longer. (this was before cell phones so I had no way of contacting them) It wasn’t long before I saw the Jeep coming up the other side of the highway. Dad was able to get my car running well enough to go on, and much my mother’s relief, we were back on our way to Utah.
My first memory of Bill was Labor Day 1984. We were just getting settled in the trailer park on the outskirts of Delta, when this man came waltzing in my parents trailer. He had on denim cutoffs and hiking boots, a very bushy, dark beard and long dark hair, in his hand was a white paper bag with his dinner, a greasy hamburger. He had just been on a three day hiking trip in Bryce Canyon and decided on his way home he would see if we had made it to Delta safely. I didn’t quite know what to think of this man, marching into our small home and making himself comfortable. I was probably worried that I didn’t look very nice as we had been getting unpacked and such. Over the next few weeks Bill was a frequent visitor at our trailer. One weekend my dad decided we should take his Jeep out into the dessert. So my first date with Bill was with my parents, in an old Jeep, out in the Utah dessert. It was a bit of an adventure, we didn’t really know what we were doing and were lucky that we didn’t get lost or worse. We did have two flat tires and only one spare. By the time we made it back to town we were completely covered in red dirt. We must have made quite a site driving through town with a severely flat tire, a make shift back seat and covered in a fine red dust.
Our next “date” was on a Saturday night, I had been previously, set up on a blind date with a co-workers, brother-in-law the week before. It was not a good date and I really didn’t want to see the weird, Mormon guy again, but he showed up at the trailer that night. We didn’t have a phone so people would just come over to our home. Soon after the local guy showed up, Bill, and at least three other construction workers descended on our small trailer. It was decided that we were all going to a local bar and dance hall. Even though I was not of legal drinking age I went along with everyone. I am not sure how I got into the place but I was there. I was trying to avoid the local Mormon boy. Bill may have noticed because he took up the role of keeping him at bay. There are two stories as to what all happened that night. My mother’s story is, that Bill asked her if it would be OK for him to ask me out on a real date. Bill’s story is, that my mother asked him to take me out on a date. I am not sure which one is the truth, but Bill did call my place of work that next week and ask me to go out with him. Our first real date, boy, I should have known that romance was not his forte. He picked me up after work, I didn’t get off until 7pm, I had not had dinner; Bill of course had eaten long ago as he got off work at 3pm. So we headed up town and I am thinking he was going to ask me about eating, but no, we went to Charlie’s, an old, slightly run down, no food service, peanut shells on the floor, beer bar. Again, I was not of legal age at the time but no one questioned me. So my first date was in an old bar, and no dinner. What a charmer! He never did live that one down. And so began our life together, you see it must have been meant to be, because he sure didn’t start off wowing me.
As I write this I am smiling and thinking how nice to remember such happy times. I am sure now that our souls were at work here and that it was all suppose to happen the way it did. I know that he is with me now and remembering with me and smiling at the memories too.
