We decided to get engaged in 1978. My dad took me and Jan over to a friend who owned a jewelry store. We picked out a ring that at that time cost a whopping $550! My dad paid the $50 down payment and we put it on a payment plan. I immediately went out and got a part time job working for the Commercial Building Maintenance company. (During most of High School I pumped gas--remember those days? During the 1974 gas crisis no less!) Now in college, my first janitor job was to clean a Good Year Tire office building--by myself. I cleaned out the ash trays (in the days when you could smoke in the building), cleaned desks, bathrooms, floors, did buffing, etc.
Very quickly I moved up the ranks and soon became a manager of a 4 story building and a small crew. The building: Minister's Life Insurance Company--how's that for irony.
We didn't say anything to Jan's family because Jan's brother was getting married in the summer of 1978. We decided to keep the pending engagement a secret until after her brother's wedding. But...
My brother Dave told his girl-friend at the time. She told a friend of hers whose family would be spending the weekend up at the lake with Jan's mom and dad. Not good. So Jan had to call and tell them over the phone that we had a ring. Jan's mom was not pleased!
The night of Jan's brother's wedding Jan's mom was trying to hook Jan up with a missionary to China!!! But after the wedding I asked Jan's dad for Jan's hand in marriage and he consented. We set the date for August 25, 1979. August is hot in Minneapolis so we prayed every day for great weather. God answered that prayer.
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