driver’s side and seated himself.  Soon we were on our way.  We went to a movie in Kent and we watched the movie all the way through.  He was a perfect gentleman and I was sure I was falling in love.  I just hoped that he loved me too.  After the moving he took me to a little restaurant in Federal Way and treated me to a banana split.

After we arrived home, I waited for Don to open the door for me and walk me to the door of our house but instead he turned to me right there in the car and said, “Aren’t you going to kiss me goodnight?” and so followed our first kiss.

That night I didn’t sleep a wink all night long but I relived again and again that beautiful moment when my beloved Don kissed me for the first time.  We were to have many dates after that.  I remember one particularly beautiful night when we were sitting in his car looking out over the water at Salt Water State Park and thinking about our future when he said, “How would you like to live on a beach someplace so you could watch the water like this all the time?”  Then I knew in my heart that he was asking me to marry him so I said, “I would love it if I could live there with you.”  We kissed and from then on we were engaged.  This was the summer of 1939 and we knew we would have years to wait before we would marry but we had many things to talk about and we would enjoy our engagement as much as we could.

We didn’t tell anyone of our engagement until the next year but I think they all knew anyway.  On my 16^th birthday Don gave me a watch.

In the fall of 1940 Don was at our house and we were sitting on our davino when he picked up a newspaper that was laying on the table next to where he was sitting and he spread it out in front of the two of us and pretended to read it but instead he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box from his pocket.  He opened the box and took out a beautiful ring and placed it on my finger.  Now our engagement was no longer to be kept a secret.  The following year, 1941, Don asked my parents if they would allow us to be married that summer.  I was 17 so I had my doubts but after some consideration my parents decided to let us and we started making plans for our wedding.  We set the date for June 14, 1941.  I made my wedding dress of white satin and Mamma made the grooms cake and set it aside to ripen.  It was a rich fruitcake and they taste better after they have set at lease for several weeks.  Mamma was planning an elaborate wedding and I knew she couldn’t afford that so I mentioned it to Don and he said “maybe we should tell her that we would like a smaller wedding, so one day we told her that we appreciated what she was doing but that we would prefer a smaller wedding at which point she said, “But you are paying for it.”  “I was just trying to help you,” Mamma said.  She sounded like she was hurt, and turned away. 

Then Don said, “But I can’t afford it either.  We would be just as happy with a small affair.  Isn’t that alright?”  Then Mamma said, “Alright then, there just won’t be any wedding.”  We felt bad but try as we would she would not change her mind.  The wedding had to wait.  Even when we told her she could go ahead with her plans for a big wedding she had made up her mind and that was that.  We would have to wait.  From that time on we startedmaking our own plans but we told no one what those plans were.

We set our new date for Feb. 27, 1942, the earliest date we could get married without my parents consent.

School started in the fall and I entered my senior year.  I set my mind on doing the best I could in school, but my mind was often distracted as I thought of that special date in Feb. when I would become Don’s wife.  When I had a free moment I would write my future name, Mrs. Donald G. Dick or Bertha May Dick.

I was placed in an Honor Study where there was no teacher to supervise us.  It was there that I met my dear friend who was to be one of our witnesses at our wedding.  She listened as I told her of our broken wedding plans the summer before.  She told me that her father was a minister and if we wanted her to she could help us plan a very simple wedding and that she was sure her father would marry us if we would like to do that.  Of course we were interested.  So after talking it over with Don he agreed and we started making our plans.  It was still a secret as far as my family and friends were concerned.  I made a calender and each day I crossed off the days that were passed.  The time seemed to go faster that way.  Before we knew it, it was February.  The 27^th was on Friday, so our plans were to go down town the Saturday before that to get our marriage license.  Don had told his mother about our plans and she agreed to be our witness to get the license.  That Saturday morning Don came over to our house and asked if I could spend the day with him.  He told her that we were going for a drive.  Saturday was one of the three days that Mamma allowed us to spend together so that was no problem – she gave her permission.  We drove by Don’s place, picked up his mother and drove to town where we got the license without any problem.

Mamma ready the newspaper every day so we knew we would have to tell her before the announcement appeared in the paper because we really wanted to be the ones to tell her.  We decided that I would tell her on Tuesday the 24^th before I went to school.  So on Tuesday morning when I was all ready for school I told her and invited her to go to the wedding.