Our Courtship and Early Marriage

I was just turning sixteen when Ralph Green and Golden Adams, two good-looking Airmen, spent a couple of hours flirting with me in the Union Pacific elevator (I was the elevator operator) and Golden asked me for a date that very night.

Golden had a car, so we drove around the city during the night-time hours looking at the sights and kind of touring around.  Time passed, and I arrived at my home from my date at 7 a.m.  My dad met us at the door and he was beside himself with worry which then truned into anger.  When Golden went to drop me off, he got out of the car and dropped down below the car so he couldn't be seen from the porch.

My dad was on the porch and wanted to know, "Which one of you young men kept my daughter out until seven in the morning?"

Golden looked over the edge of the car and said, "It was me."

My Dad and Golden had a real good visit -- or whatever you want to call it.  To my surprise, they hit it off and Golden was allowed to continue to take me out.  This was in April of 1943, and we dated almost daily.  We spent every available time together, Golden and I, and he was able to get passes from the base to allow him to come into town.

There were a few weekends that we spent in Tremonton with his folks, and other times that mother had a feather tick mattress or bed that she would throw on the floor of the living room for Golden to sleep at the times he spent the night with us.

My sister, Hilda, was dating a Air Force man also.  His name was Jim Edney and there was many a night that he would also spend the night at our home sleeping on the floor in the living room.  Golden and he became pals and spent time  together until they were separated, being shipped out to different locations.

Jimmy, as we called him, was later married to my sister and then was shipped out from the airbase in Salt Lake to another base within the US and I don't remember where that was.  But Hilda went with him and moved around from base to base for several months.

Golden and I were married June 24th of 1943 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Mother prepared a wedding dinner which she served to the Adams' and Thiessens' famlies in our home on 326 Bryan Avenue.  Since it was to be a wedding dinner celebration, Jay Mitchell, Golden, and I think Golden's brother, Bill, went to the liquor store and bought wine.  That's just the way those boys were.  It turned into a kind of wild day.  They boys were "feeling their oats" after having a few glasses of wine.  They were kind of rowdy and fun loving.  Nothing destructive or out of control.  My Dad was not very happy with the situation.

Ruth Lenore Thiessens and Golden Virgil Adams, 1943

We found ourselves an apartment on 10th East and Harrison Avenue.  This was an upstairs apartment which we lived in until December when Golden got his orders to go overseas.  He was shpped to the European Theatre of War.  That was two days before Christmas.  I was pregnant at the time, and I moved back with Mother and Dad.  Golden's Mother and Dad visited me often in Salt Lake and I was invited to spend time at their home in Tremonton on different occasions.

Virginia Brann Adams and William Albert Adams, Golden's Parents - 1943

Mother was cleaning offices in the Union Pacific Building at night, and I would go in and help her being six months pregnant.

The people who hired her to work for them were very pleased with her work because she was so meticulous about having things clean.  I'm sure that stems from her background of being born and raised in Holland.  I remember when she would take those great GIV machines to scrub and polish the floors through all the offices and having to move all the furniture.  The people told her she was the first janitress that was so clean to move all the furniture and clean behind and under it.  She did this nightly.

Mother and I obtained work at a sandwich shop that was located on the airbase.  We'd make sandwiches for the military young men and pack box lunches for them that they could take on the planes with them because food was not served on the troop carriers.

Golden and I corresponded almost daily.  If a day passed that I didn't get  a letter, I was concerned and worried that something had happened to him.  It was a relief the following day when there would be another letter.

He sent me perfumes from Paris (namely Chanel #5 and Shalimar Guerlain) for Christmas and he also sent me a stuffed animal--a white poodle dog that Grandma Adams fell in love with.  Whenever Grandma and Grandpa visited, Grandma would hold that stuffed animal on her lap until she traded it for holding her new little grandson, Golden Junior, who was born May 31st 1944.

While Golden was stationed in Europe -- France, actually -- he received a pass for a two week furlough which he decided to spend in Switzerland.  While in Switzerland, he met a family with two small children, and the children took to Golden immediately.  He was invited to spend those two weeks with that family while he toured and was sightseeing around that country. 

Golden Junior was born at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake and he and I made several visits to Grandpa and Grandma Adams in Tremonton.  These frequent associations created an endearment between Mom an Daddy Adams and myself and I came to feel as though they were second parents.  Times were a little tough and there were several occasions when I would visit that Momma Adams would slip me a 20 dollar bill with instructions, " Don't tell Dad."

Golden Jr. was 18 months old when his Dad returned home form Europe two days before Christmas.  So that would have been 1945.

 

You'll Never Know Who He'll Be...
Work Prior to Marriage
 

Comments 1

Already Registered? Login Here
Diane Mason Gray (website) on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 17:46

I can see why boys were flirting with you. From that picture of you as a young woman, you were BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I can see why boys were flirting with you. From that picture of you as a young woman, you were BEAUTIFUL!!!!