"It's Our Anniversary!"

"It's Our Anniversary!"

We've been married 43 years as of today (August 22, 2013)! Seems like an appropriate time to reflect a bit on those years of marriage and the wonderful woman I was fortunate to meet on the ONU campus 46 years ago.

I really don't remember the first time I noticed Dorothy Machunas on ONU's campus - my suspicion is it was in Ron Evan's math classroom. But we also began to travel in the same circle of friends and it might have been an occasion prior to the first class. What I do know is at some point I discovered she was from Continental, a community about 9 miles from my hometown of Ottawa, Ohio, and she was a math major. She was one of three popular and good looking ladies from that small community who decided ONU was a good place for them to continue their education.

The first "setting the scene side-note" I would share builds on one of those I shared in my recent post about the relationship between Ron Evans and me/us. Mr. Evans was also Dorothy's adviser because she was a math education major. We were in the same first math class and Mr. Evans was the professor. While I don't remember this happening, I've heard her tell the story so many times over the years I feel fairly competent to repeat it. As our first day of class was closing, Mr. Evans announced that he would like Dorothy Machunas to stay after class.

She was shocked, scared, confused, etc. She couldn't imagine what he wanted to see her about. When everyone else had left he asked her if Janet Meyers had been her high school math teacher. She softly answered, "Yes." He then said: "Well, she was my high school math teacher as well, so I know what I can expect out of you!" (Mrs. Meyers had taught at Vaughnsville High School before taking a position in Continental and Ron Evans had graduated from Vaughnsville. Yes, it is a small world!)

The second "setting the scene side-note" I would offer happened as my long-time high school girlfriend was breaking up with me. I think I wrote or called her everyday for several weeks lamenting her decision and trying to convince her we could/should make it work. I believe it was in one of her letters to me that she wisely/desperately/innocently stated: "Surely there are girls at ONU that are attractive and nice that you could date."

I'm not terribly proud of all of my response but it's what I wrote back: "Well, there's one, maybe, but she's from Continental!" (My apologies to all my many wonderful relatives and friends I have today from Continental! Please forgive me! I was trying to be humorous and honest at the same time.) The one girl I had in mind was Dorothy. But we were friends. And she began to date pretty seriously a fellow ONU football teammate of mine. Still, we spent a lot of time together that year because of the classes and friends we shared.

I managed to start dating three girls during the rest of that freshmen year. I'm not really sure how much time overlapped in those relationships but I'm pretty sure that there were months when I was dating more than one at a time. It was pretty easy to pull off since only one was on campus and the other two were in Dayton and Defiance. To be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by this confession because they were all three very nice  and I had a wonderful relationship with each one of them.

Well, the summer after our freshmen year a friend of mine, Bill Horstman, and I decided we were going to impart our new attitudes and ideas about race, war, etc. to our hometowns of Ottawa and Glandorf. Our way of doing so was to open a coffee house, The Serenity House (I'll save most of the stories about that for another blog post). Once in awhile that summer Dorothy would bring a friend or two over to the coffee house. On one of those nights it was her roommate and close friend, Nini.

After some time at the coffee house we decided to head to "My Place" for some dancing and further socializing. My Place was a local bar with live bands and a dance floor one block from my home. Late in the evening we decided to go outside to cool off. Then we decided to walk the 1/2 mile or so to the West Main Street bridge over the Blanchard River. I don't remember who all was with us but I know it was Dorothy, Nini, Horse, Big Dave and myself. This was a common route for me when I needed a break from studying when I was in high school. On our way to the bridge lights went on simultaneously in my head and heart, I was in love with Dorothy! Oh, she wasn't aware yet. We were still just friends.

We made plans to go hear my roommate, Carl (Larry) Martin, preach in an area UM church. When I dropped her off, I leaned over and kissed her - she wasn't expecting it. The rest of the summer we saw each other almost every day, even if it meant me taking a detour through Rice when delivering or picking up eggs between our eggplant in Ottawa to the eggplant in Delphos. She worked at a restaurant in Rice run by Charlie Bill. Only people from that area of Ohio get the humor and act of love this slight detour signifies. I took a lot of teasing that summer and still do even to this day!

Then came the fall and a two year courtship with my proposing to her on Christmas Eve, 1969, during the Machunas family gift exchange - her engagement ring was tied to
a rocking chair which was my other gift to her. This was rather bold since we knew her dad was not crazy about us marrying because I was considering being a United Methodist pastor and they were a devout Roman Catholic family. Her sister and mother ran interference for us. (Oh, another side note: I actually took her sister, Susie, out on a date before Dorothy and I went out. We went to see "The Graduate" - a really appropriate first date movie!)

We were married August 22, 1970 at St. John's Catholic Church in Continental. What a wonderfully beautiful bride she was (still is) and what an awesome day we enjoyed! The rest - first night at Riverview Inn in Tiffin, honeymoon at Lake Hope, moving into the dorm after two weeks of marriage for two-a-days, getting sick on the honeymoon, rice in her suitcase and her clothes tied in knots (thanks Nini!), family gatherings, etc. will have to be another post, another day.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, DOROTHY! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN THE WORDS CAN EVER MEAN!!!