How About Me? Sharing the News.

On our way back to “The Tod” we stopped at a party store.  We bought a package of Twinkies and a bottle of champagne.  We made a toast to ourselves, ate our “wedding cake” and changed our clothes.  Then we called Ruth’s parents.

Ruth’s mom answered the phone.  There was no small talk.  I was listening to one end of the conversation that went something like this.  “Hello Mom.  I’m calling from Las Vegas to tell you and dad that I got married.”  Kate, Ruth’s mom, must have asked to who because the next thing that I heard from Ruth was “Bob”.

Now that tells you something.  Ruth is engaged to Mike, calls her mom to tell her that she’s eloped, and mom asked who she married. She didn’t even provide a check list.  It was an opened ended “Who can it be?” kind of question.

Ruth started to speak, but the tears won out again, and I took the phone.  I said all the things that a guy should say.  “I love her.”  “I’ll take good care of her.”  “You can count on me.”  And I meant ever word.  We closed the conversation with, “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

After the phone call, we got in the car and drove to Hoover Dam.  We bought a camera, took turns taking each other’s picture at the dam (way before selfies) and then took a tour.   Turns out our trip was life changing, educational and a possible tax deduction.

The next morning, we had the Champagne Brunch at The Sahara.  We were celebrating and planning for our “what’s next” when the tears returned.  How many times can one girl cry?  My only thought was Ruth was starting to regret the whole “How about me?” question and reply.  I offered up a possible solution.   “If you’re having second thoughts, we can get a divorce, right now, and no one will know the difference.  We can get a divorce in the same amount of time as it took us to get married. We can tell everyone that we changed our minds.”

Turns out that was the perfect thing to say.  While the tears didn’t subside, she did know my intentions were sincere.   I did love her.  I did want her to be happy. And I did want her to stop crying.

A few sniffles later we were on a plane headed back to Chicago.

It was early evening when we landed and I called our new building principal, Burton Cave, to tell him that I would need a sub for my classroom the next day.  “You need to get one for Ruth VanBruggen too.  We eloped over the weekend.”

“Sure, you did.  Is she going to drive truck with you too?”

Funny thing.  About three weeks before school started that fall, several of the male members of the junior high teaching staff decided it would be a good idea for me to call Burton to play a joke on him.  While we all planned the joke, I did the talking.   I told him I had driven truck all summer and that I liked my new job.   I was going to quit teaching and become a teamster.  He bought the story before he heard everyone laughing in the background, and he wasn’t going to fall for another one of my “jokes”.

“No really”, I pleaded.   “I’m telling the truth.  We both need subs.  We’ll be in later in the morning to explain.”   I leaned out of the phone booth so he could hear the announcement “flight 702 to Tokyo, Japan is now boarding”.  He heard it, laughed and said, “Ok, I’ll see the two of you tomorrow.”

We drove back to Kalamazoo and spent the night with Chuck at our apartment.  The next morning, we drove to Ruth’s mom and dad’s house in Plainwell.   Her dad was working, but we spoke with her mom and that conversation was the key to dry eyes.  We recounted the weekend’s events, and once again, I committed myself to taking care of Ruth.

After speaking with her mom, Ruth and I drove over to the junior high. The place exploded.   Turns out Burton couldn’t keep a secret.  “They’re here!  They’re here!” rang out from students hanging out from the classroom windows.   As we walked up the stairs towards Burton’s office, kids rushed out to see us and talk, teachers shook our hands, and more than one welled up with tears.  We were about to become the biggest story that town had shared in years.

We met briefly with Burton who gave me $8.00 from petty cash so we could “have lunch”.  It was decided that we would return to work on Thursday.  We each visited our classroom, stopped along the way to meet with others, and were preparing to return to Ruth’s parents to see her dad when we discovered that my car had been decorated while we were inside making the rounds.   There was toilet paper wrapped inside and out and rice everywhere.  It was a fun mess from a bunch of people who loved us.  Students filled the school’s front lawn, and cheers rang out again, as we “unwrapped” the car.

We drove back to Ruth’s parent’s house to vacuum out the rice and meet with her dad.   There were a few tears from Ruth and Kate, but all in all that meeting went well.  Lou, Ruth’s dad, was going to be OK with all of this.  That was a huge relief to me.  While we were there, Ruth called her sisters, Kathy and Shirley so they were in the loop with all that had taken place.

My sister, Sharron, was student teaching in Grand Rapids about a half hour from Plainwell.  I wanted to tell her the news in person, so we drove up to her school.  She was in an after-school staff meeting and I had her called out so we could speak with her.  We briefly recounted the week-ends events and then started off on our drive to Royal Oak to break the news to my parents.

My dad was washing dishes when we walked in the side door into the kitchen.  He turned around and asked what we were doing home.  I told him we came to tell them we had eloped.  His reply still rings clearly in our ears, “What the hell did you do that for?” and he turned to complete the dishes.   My mom came down the hall and was a bit more subtle and excited.  Both were obviously surprised.  Heck, so were Ruth and I.

Mom called my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Harry and my Aunt Phillis and Uncle Harry.  (Yes, I had two Uncle Harrys.)   I called my college roommate, Gary, and his wife, Susan.  Everyone came over and we recounted the events again and again as each couple arrived.  My youngest sister, Jackie, joined us after her shift at Baskin-Robbins. Surprise!

The most unusual part of the trip to Royal Oak was my mom and dad giving up their double bed to the newlyweds.  Awkward.

That’s how the long weekend went.  What we didn’t know at the time was several people were circling the month of May 1972 on their calendars.

TBFN  (to be finalized next)