Personal History (1982) - Page 18

Before I had turned sixteen and became a priest, Noel and I were already looking ahead to the time when we would be dating. We had already suffered through numerous dances standing by the wall because we didn't feel comfortable with our ability to dance. We weren't about to stand aside and miss out on dating as well. With the help of the other girls in the M.I.A. we arranged a dating panel with the intention of learning all there was to it. We had many questions and they allowed us to practice helping with coats, opening doors, and seating them at a table. They boosted our confidence so much that we asked the girls our age to allow us to take them out and dazzle them with our social graces. We decided to eat at the new Spaghetti Factory of Trolley Square in Salt Lake and with chaperones, we suffered through our first official group date.

We started High School with less worries about being picked on by larger and older schoolmates. We had participated in a summer drama and had become familiar with the school. I could hardly wait to learn to drive. Dad would let me start our cars and back them out of the driveway but still, I wished I had been raised in Idaho because I would have been driving for two years by then. My chance came soon enough and I was out raising the insurance premium. Once I had a car full of kids and we were racing up 500 South in a snow storm. We started to slide and I lost control; the car spun in a circle, crossed in front of the oncoming traffic, we went up and over the sidewalk, and ended up in old Mr. Stahle's corn field. Another time I backed into a car while driving a friend home, but all in all I caused fewer gray hairs than the other driving children.

Noel, when he started driving, would take us to school in the "Stahle Bomb". It was a 1956 green Ford station wagon that was rusting slowly to its final resting place. It was good for Noel because he already had a girlfriend to pamper, but I was slower to start. I remember waiting so long that I was asked out by a friend in the ward for my first date. She was sensitive to me being nervous and tripling with my sister Cari didn't help matters much. I had bought the incoming fashion, a leisure suit, and was self-conscious because no one else wore one to that girls dance. When it was all over I remained unimpressed and didn't date again until it was arranged as a mutual outing.

Noel was crazy about the symphony and a Russian cellist was coming to perform and it fell on our Mutual night. We had to include that as an activity or he would have gone without us. Once we had decided to go, I was intent on finding someone who would accompany me but had no one in mind. I finally decided to ask a girl who I was afraid already thought I was after her. Earlier that year a friend knew I was timid and played on that weakness to embarrass me. A beautiful young lady had walked down the hall and he yelled to her and said he had a friend who really liked her. I had some idea what he was about to do so but the time she turned to see who was calling, I was halfway down the hall. All she saw of me were my feet as I hurried away. Her name was Susan Barrus and played cello with Noel. I somehow managed to get her phone number and with encouragement from my mother, I gave her phone a ring. She came to the phone and I recklessly proceeded to ask her to be my date; she said that she was not quite sixteen but would see if her father would give permission for her to attend. After a brief pause, she gave me the bad news. Her father had said no. I thanked her for asking and proceeded to call an older clarinet player who I know would go with me.

In the meantime, Susan and her sisters convinced their father to allow her to date such a fine young man as me in spite of her age. She was too proper to contact me but got word to a friend who graciously informed her that I would be happy to hear the new and that she should plan... Next Page