An Enduring Romance: Part Three

In her own words.

From Grandma Stringam's journals:

Part One.
Part Two.

Part three . . .

I knew he had been coming to Teasdale all the winter before two or three times a month. He would visit with my mother and the family and also with my Uncle Walter [who had been his roommate at school in Provo]. Because of this I didn’t know if he had anything special in mind when he told me that he would be back on Sunday.

When he came, he asked my mother if I could go to the Fourth of July celebration at Thurber and then stay overnight with his family and attend a wedding dance there the next night.

She said yes, I could go.

When I arrived there, George’s half-sister was there and while we were visiting she said to me, “So you are here on inspection.”

I said, “Am I? I didn’t know that.”

She said, “Yes, but don’t be nervous.”

I had a great time those two days and when he took me home he told me he would be seeing me during the summer.

My mother’s two brothers and her brother-in-law lived close together, so close that they could carry on conversations without leaving their lots. The morning after the dance, Uncle Charlie was standing on his step and called over to Uncle Alex and said, “Vina’s got the right one now. Everything is all right.”

Uncle Alex seemed to feel the same way and shouted back that he thought it was a fine thing.

Uncle Alex’s wife came out then and said, “Oh you come in and shut up. They can hear you all over town!”

I [also] knew I had my Uncle Walter’s approval because he told me some time before this, “There is only one man I know that is good enough for you and I’m afraid you won’t get him because I think he will marry May [George’s first wife]’s sister.

My Aunt Sarah May had a son and a daughter who had finished school in Teasdale and were wanting to go to Provo to go on with their education. She knew I wanted to go to Provo, too. She suggested that I come along with her and some of her children and spend the summer on the Dark Valley Ranch. There we would make cheese and butter.

George and his father was running their cattle on the near-by mountain and George cane to check on them several times during the summer.

It was during this time that he asked me to marry him.

I told him I would marry him, but I also told him that I would like to go to school in Provo at least one year.

He said, “Well, I think you should go to school. I’ll wait for you. If you want this year there I think that’s what you should do."

When we finished at the ranch, I came home and started to get ready for school, Grandma took me to task. She said, “Lovina, I don’t think you should go away to school.”

I said, “Why not, Grandma?”

She said, “Because that man is older, quite a bit older than you. He is ready to get married and maybe he will take someone else while you are gone. You know a good man for the rest of your life is better than one year at school.”

“Oh, but he wants me to go to school,” I said. “He thinks I should have one year at Provo and he will wait for me.”
She looked quite relieved and said, “Then it’s all right if that’s what he said.”