52 stories week 6

Do you know the story of how your grandparents met and fell in love? 

No, is the answer, so I asked my parents. 

My dad said, about his mom and dad Fred Money and Constance Frehner:

Dad was a very popular Brigadier at BYU (The big campus social club of the 50s). Mom was the Las Vegas Homecoming Queen.   They met at a BYU Dance, Dad thought mom was beautiful.


My mom's parents, Robert Nesbit and Cecil Abbott

“The First Time I saw Cecil”

I was in Church at Philadelphia Branch and I saw Cecil for the first time. She caught my attention immediately. She had on a white dress. I had just come down from Atlantic City where I was stationed at Pamona Naval Air Base. We had a church group meeting in Pleasantville, New Jersey,  I was 21 at this time and enjoyed going to all the activities.

                We started talking at the activities and one night we ended up washing and drying dishes.  I mentioned to Cecil that I wanted to go to the Pageant in Palmyra, New York. She asked her Father to go and off we went. I remember we drove upstate with her Mom and Dad and Eloise. Eloise was a friend that had heard we were going and wanted to go.  I sat in the middle of Cecil and Eloise in the back. We had a good time. We stayed together the whole trip, we went to the pageant, toured the grounds, walked through the Sacred Grove together. It was the beginning.

                From that time on we were always together. Our youth group was very active and we were always having some sort of activity.  Cecil and I served refreshments for all the firesides.

Cecil's side of the story...

...they started talking about Palmyra. He needed a ride. I asked my dad if we could take Bob. I figured he would get there and go off with the missionaries. My dad said yes, and we all went up. Bob spent the whole time with us. He got a room where we were. We took Eloise Thomas with us so she could go. We had a wonderful time teasing Bob all the way up and back, he sat between us. I guess that is where I began to fall in love with Bob. When I met Bob, after a week or so, after I had gotten to know him, I had a strong feeling of here is the man I’m going to marry. It wasn’t like “Oh I’m in love,” because you don’t fall in love like that but it was just that when I was a kid I read Added Upon and had this feeling that when you met the one who is going to be your husband you would know him, so this was it, I felt like I knew him. He used to laugh at me and say ...there wasn’t just one person that was the right one for you, there could be any number of people that could be just the right person for you. I was sure there was just one, and he was it so that was just fine.

Our first formal date came about due to a misunderstanding. Many of the adults were talking and Cecil said to me, “They’re all going to the Ice Capades and I thought she was trying to tell me that she was being left behind and wanted me to take her. So I told her I would take her. I bought the tickets and we went together that night. We watched half of the show and than left. We were more interested in each other than watching the ice show. We went to Cecil’s home and decided when I would receive the Priesthood; we would go to temple to be married.  Now remember we had spent quite a bit of time together.    (Approx. Sept-Oct 1948)

Mom’s version: ...we were always together, doing things together, but we never went on a bonified date. Dad must have thought I was hinting, but I didn’t really. All we really wanted to do was be together. I’m sure he would have kissed me that night, because we talked about getting married. It was nice, because before when I was going out with your dad, every night before we would leave each other we would have a prayer together or when we were finished we would have a prayer together. That gives you a nice, sweet feeling about things, you’re not going to do anything you shouldn’t. That was what kind of relationship we had.

One night we were at the church having such a good time with June and Al, who were real good friends of ours, and so funny. When it came time for us to go home we went outside to catch the trolley to go home.  Daddy said to me, “Would you like a dime to go on the trolley” and he didn’t go with me. I thought, "what’s going on?" I couldn’t believe it! Well I found out he had one dime to his name that night. And that dime was the only thing standing between him and getting back to Atlantic City. He didn’t have two dimes to take me on the trolley so he couldn’t take me home. Why didn’t he just say to me, "Hey, I don’t have the money to take you home," and I’d have supplied my own dime. I had to anyhow and then we could have gone together at least. I just felt so bad that he couldn’t take me home and all he had was a thin dime. He probably had to hitch hike home that night.