It started out with my brother
driving me to Oakland. He would have been my best man. It was early in
the morning of the 23rd. Raquel did not think I would make it. The water
at the fountain was turned off. Apparently with a water shortage,
neighbors thought the temple was wasting the water. They did not know it
was pumped over and over. The Oakland Temple has a mural on the front side of Jesus and the twelve apostles. On the South side of the temple was a mural of Jesus the the 12 disciples
from the Book of Mormon. Visitors can easily go up and walk around. Up
on top on the south side is a brass marker. They use this marker to
measure how much the faults move on the east range and the west range
mountains. It is pretty cool. Apparently the church purchased the land in 1943, and then took time to get it just right. Dedication was in 1964.
The Oakland area performed an indoor pageant which
we attended in July. It was after coming home from that pageant that I
proposed to Raquel. [After 2007 the pageant was not performed.]
The sealer was Bro Gingler. Jim and Rosalie had the Temple
President seal them. The room was kind of a small one. Remember there
was only side of the family there. There was a few from my ward. Bro
Fox, Bishop Houghton. I was too busy staring into Raquel's eyes to
notice many others.
At the time the temple only had two big ordinance rooms. Now there are four.
When
we walked out, my father was speaking to the attendant. I think he was
trying to get in. But later he asked the same man for the address for a
good restaurant. It was really cool to see mom and dad there, since we
did not really invite them. They then took us out to eat lunch. It was
there way of making is special for us, and being with the bride and
groom.
Also when we came out of the temple my brother drove
up in a blue Lincoln he rented for us on our honeymoon. Remember my car
at the time was a 1972 blue Torino. It was a real treat to have a Lincoln to drive around for a few days.
Our reception was at the home of Dick and Rita Caldwell. They lived in the Lodi area in a place called Acampo.
This was all in the Lodi School district and the Lodi wards. They were
good friends of the Nelsons. The picture in our bedroom with the pink
roses was taken at that reception. [The Petersons had their reception at
the Peterson Home in Morada]. They had two daughters about the same age
and got married that summer/fall as well. He was a former Bishop. They
had a pool in the back yard. One of the sons thought it would be fun to
bolt a iron ball to my ankle. So there is a picture of me with a ball
and chain.
At the end of the evening we drove through Tracy on
the way to San Jose. Our honeymoon was held at Marriott Great America.
Now it is called Great America. It is a theme park in the Bay Area. We
took a picture there. It is found the the family room with a old time
wood frame. The print is on a piece of metal. There are other pictures
of the Oakland Temple on that wall.
Then on Saturday we headed back to the Oakland
temple to witness the Peterson sealing. They asked us to be the witness
couple. That was cool. Then it was back to home. That evening we went to
Morada to the
Peterson home. This is where it all started. A few months earlier I was
visiting with my new friend Jim Peterson. I told him I was going to
propose. So here we were again at their home. The home never looked
better. Jim took a lot of time to groom the grounds.
A few days later we all stuffed our cars and drove
to Provo. Jim had made an earlier trip to deliver furniture. I asked him
to find us a place to live. He found an apartment that had a wall to
wall bed. His imagination got away from him. The apartment had one
bedroom built from a converted porch. The bed was a twin, and it was a
small room. It was hard to make the bed. But there we lived and returned
to school. This was our new life together.
Hope someone prints this out to save it. Oh, and if Raquel has a different story, remember my was first.
Love,
Dad
