How We Met - part four
In 1927, Ethel Martin started teaching school in Syracuse, Utah, being hired for the job by her sister Mabel’s father-in-law. Mabel and her husband Claude Nalder had settled in San Francisco and invited Ethel to come spend the summer of 1928 with them. Claude asked his friend Vernard to “take Ethel under his wing” and see that she had a good time in San Francisco. Vern reports that he knew the first time he met Ethel that she was the one for him, and so he bribed the other single men in the ward to never ask her on a date. They all cooperated; because he was the ripe-old age of 31, they were anxious for him to find a wife.
Ethel wasn’t as impressed with her first sight of Vernard. She had been raised with high standards of social conduct. The first time she was introduced to Vern, he was eating popcorn on the street – a social “no-no” for the day. Ethel cut her vacation short because she couldn’t return Vern’s love, but the letters and phone calls, flowers, candy and books, followed her to Utah and eventually she said yes. They were married June 19, 1929 in the Salt Lake Temple and lived in San Francisco for just a few months before the IRS transferred them to San Jose.
Now we’re getting to my part of the story. (Because you're all so brilliant, I know you already figured out that the first installments were Wayne's grandfather's story.) As a young girl growing up in San Jose, I was able to spend a lot of time with my grandparents – Sunday evening visits, Saturday workdays, summer barbecues, and holiday dinners. We also made frequent trips to San Francisco, where we’d stop in to visit Mabel, or “Auntie,” who was like another grandmother to us.
Top picture: Vern and Ethel Beckstrand on their wedding day. Bottom picture: My other grandparents, Arthur and Dorothy White, on their wedding day. They don't really have anything to do with the "how we met" story, other than they're part of why I'm here now, but I figured this is equal opportunity picture posting day.
Comments