Musings on 30 Years of Marriage--4

(Jan thinks our first date was on January 31, 1975.)

Jan graduated from High School in May of 1975. From there she was headed to St. Olaf College, about a 40-60 minute drive from my house. She was going to get a BA in nursing.

We had a good summer but then came the hard part--being separated as she headed to school. There was some obvious dis-ease wondering if our relationship would last as it was fairly new. Plus, I was admittedly intimidated by all of those college boys she'd be hanging around.

Dropping her off at school was a toughie. It was a long ride back home (I drove her car home as, being a freshman, she couldn't have a car on campus. The car broke down about 3 miles from her house!) It was a few days later that it dawned on me that she was not that far away. I could visit her on weekends.

So that began weekend drives down to St. Olaf in Northfield, MN. While Jan was there we headed back to Minneapolis to attend our very first Barry Manilow Concert! He introduced songs from his soon to be released album, Trying to Get the Feeling. What a show. The first of many over the last 35 some years.

Jan didn't last long at St. Olaf. The program was a liberal arts degree with a small amount of nursing. So she left and enrolled at Mounds Midway School of Nursing in St. Paul--a three year RN program that got the students on the floor day 1. She loved it. (Good news for me--almost all girl students: no competition!)

That was also my final year of High School. Since most of my friends were Seniors the year before (including Jan) I wasn't sure how I'd get through my Senior Year. So in my Jr. year I ran for Student Body President (to be served the next year) and won. I had a very, very good Senior year--even better when Jan moved back home.

After I graduated I decided to attend the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle. That meant a real long distance relationship. It was tough. My family drove me out to Seattle and Jan came along. That last night was painful!!! Saying goodbye was even tougher. And each time I headed back to Seattle for another 3 months grew increasingly difficult.

LBI was known as the Lutheran Bridal Institute and many of my friends predicted that in no time I'd dump Jan and find someone else. But word got out quickly that I was hooked. The big, life-sized poster of Jan above my bed was the tip off.

This was in the day of no cell phones. Once a week I'd call Jan from the phone booth in the dorm. We literally spent hundreds of dollars a month on phone bills. And we'd write letters every day. Nothing better than getting a letter. Nothing worse than not getting one. I remember one week I didn't receive a letter the entire week. Not good. When you can't get instant information it's easy to start imagining the worst. But on Friday I received 5 letters!

Jan came out to visit for a week in the fall of my 4th quarter. It was so good to have her there. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my time at LBI. I loved every minute of it. But it was not easy.

We endured 4 quarters of that kind of separation until I couldn't take it anymore and I transferred back to Minneapolis.

Marriage was in the air, but Jan and her good friend moved into Jan's grandma's house (her grandma had moved into a retirement home). Jan and her friend figured they'd live there at least a year.

But then Jan's friend decided she was going to get married. That moved everything up. And one night, Jan proposed! (Good thing, because I still wasn't sure if we were an item or not! :))