Alaska Uses More Duct Tape Than Your State

I promise to continue with the Doug and Lollie love story, but first I have to get this off my chest...

I just found out about a job opening in Alaska. dang. Problem is, its for me, not Doug. It is a job counseling families of the military. man. I would love to do that. I did do that when I was there. I miss my adopted home state. I wonder if I will ever get back up there again.

I miss how resourceful people are up there. They have to be. They are so isolated.

Alaskans use duct tape on everything. To apply the foil to the windows in summer, (to keep the midnight sun away so kids will sleep), to appy directly to skin in winter, (to avoid frost bite), even to duct tapes friends to walls who do a snow dance and bring on a spring blizzard.
sometimes I really miss you Alaska.

The Big Proposal

At Thanksgiving Doug asked me to join his family in Lindon and ride up with him. He was taking me home to meet his fam. Hmmm.
On the drive up there was a white-out blizzard. Cars were going off the road right and left. We passed one car and there was a man standing beside it. We passed him by and both of us had a VERY strong impression to turn around and give him a ride. It was tangible. In retrospect, I can’t help but wonder if all seven of our children were in the cab of the truck telling us to turn around! The man turned out to be the treasurer of University of Utah. We had a delightful conversation with him and dropped him off at the next town so he could take care of things.
I froze to death sleeping on the couch in the Debenham house where the Dad liked to keep costs down by turning off the heat at night.
But I LOVED Lila Mae.
Hmmm.
I can’t remember what we fought about. But by Christmas, we broke up. I told him I could NEVER marry him and there was no more point in dating. He mourned over the loss by taking out Christine Oldham (she asked him out) while I hung out with the Baileys in Washoe Valley. Kathy said I talked nonstop about Doug that whole Christmas vacation. I don’t remember that.
But only a few days after returning home, Doug was at my door. He said he got a phone call from the president of Dixie College and he requested that Doug bring me with him for a meeting.
Right.
I only partly believed him, but went along for kicks. Alton Wade invited us in to his office and sat us down. He read a letter he had received from the Treasurer of the University of Utah. That man told President Wade about being picked up by us and that his opinion of Dixie College was immensely improved by the impression Doug and I made on him. All he had was our names and that we went to Dixie so he asked President Wade to give us this check for thirty dollars along with the direction that it be used to go out on a nice date.
Dang.
We HAD to go out on a date again. Neither of us wanted to. (Well, Doug said he didn’t), But the president of the school said we HAD to. So we did.
And we went on lots of speech competitions. LOOOOOOONG bus rides and longer talks. We were buddies. He was my best friend and the person I wanted to talk to about everything. Everybody on the speech team was witty and clever and we all had a great time together. We were like family and we teased each other and played jokes on each other constantly.
But I was dating other guys as well. Like David Dispain, who was incredibly talented with music and his dad was an institute teacher. I was on the LDSSA counsel and got to meet all the top notch young men fresh off their missions. I was pretty sure Dave was getting ready to pop the question, so I was really glad when Doug asked me to go out with him for a Saturday date to Vegas. I really needed to have a good heart to heart with my best friend.
And the fact that we were going to Vegas was great because it would be our last date! Our first date was to Vegas, and our last date would be to Vegas. I even told Doug that on the drive down in his rusty orange truck. He just smiled. We listened to John Denver songs and Doug changed the words to “Ain’t it Good, to be back home again, sometimes, this old truck, seems like a long lost friend.”
He thought he was so clever. I thought it was funny that he thought that was clever, so I laughed. I always get his humor and he always can make me laugh. I think I said so. Mostly I talked about Dave Dispain and asked Doug's advice on how to handle the relationship. He didn't really talk too much.
We went out to eat at a German Restaurant that is no longer there. Then we went over to the big hotel with the naked statue in it. I didn’t really want to go inside but Doug was looking for somewhere quiet with atmosphere where we could sit and talk. He said he had something very important he wanted to talk to me about.
I was goofing off. Being silly. (Keep in mind how old I was. I was actually ACTING MY AGE), but I was completely clueless about what was going on with Doug.

Finally, we found a booth by the pool. I noticed it had a bar that hung across the top of it to hold out an umbrella. It looked very much like a jungle gym to me. I swung myself up and hung by my knees. He finally got me sitting upright and he said, “There is something really important I need to ask you”.
He pulled out a blue velvet ring box and my heart went to my stomach. I opened the box and inside was a paper ring cut out of a magazine add.
What a relief.
It was all a big joke. I laughed so hard there were tears coming out of my eyes. Finally I paused to take a breath and realized Doug wasn’t laughing.
Oops.
He asked me to marry him.
He had a little note that explained the paper ring, (he wanted me to pick out my own) and I read it and felt rather foolish.
I was subdued and didn’t talk much the whole ride home except to ask him important questions like “Did you sunburn as a baby? Because Kathy’s little blond kids get terrible sunburns and I don’t want to have to worry about my babies getting easily burnt.”
He dropped me off and we agreed I would think and pray about it.
I thought but I didn’t really pray. I mean, this was ridiculous. He was five years older than me and pure logic said it was insane to marry so young and I was planning on serving a mission so of course the Lord wouldn’t want me to marry Doug Debenham.
I mean, c’mon! He was Doug Debenham!!!
Besides that, he was too cute to be righteous and his cars and clothes were too posh for humility. Sure he would make a great father but he was a hunk and his jaw has that firm thrust to it and I really loved his sea green eyes and I just couldn’t trust how I felt around him. He smelled incredible and sometimes I would get all jittery and flub up on speeches. My heart would get all pitterpattery and I just wasn't as competent when he was around!
No. the answer had to be no.
So I found him the next day and said so.

Never Kiss on the First 11 Dates...

Then he went to Alaska for the summer. We wrote a couple of letters. Not sure I actually sent them.
I saw him at the opening social in Snow Canyon. He was gorgeous. I knew he was entirely too good-looking to be humble. Not to mention the car he drove. He also had a beat up old truck and I preferred to go places in it rather than his jacked up black camero with the skunk stripe. But at the opening social he had his motorcycle. He gave me a ride home and took off in such a way that I HAD to hold on tight to his waist.
Oh the chemistry.
But still no kissing.
We asked our speech coaches if we could do a duet act together for competition. After talking it over they decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to pair us up because things could get ugly if our relationship went sour. We later discovered that Christine Oldham had her eye on Doug for her duet act. She had her eye on him for other things too, but of course the coaches didn’t know that. Christine was the golden child of the squad. She was there on a full drama scholarship and was homecoming queen and of course, beautiful.
So I was paired with Mike Mayo. We went back and forth that year with Doug’s act winning in one competition and mine winning at the next. He had a pretty decent Informative speech on healthy eating but for ever trophy he got, I got three or four. I competed in everything. Doug got the grades though. He took physics with the head cheerleader and helped her with her homework. She is a physician in St. George now.
There were always women trailing Doug. It was disgusting. So I basically ignored him, thinking I couldn’t really compete with those gals. It was the best thing I could have done. I was the first girl who didn’t give him the time of day and he was very enticed by that.
He went to a lot of effort to ask me to a dance I already had a date too. That was good for him. I beat Christine Oldham out of Regional Speaker of the Tournament. That was good for me.
I was working for a family with six children. I cleaned their house and tutored their 12 year old. (Of the guys that stopped by to chat in the library where we had our tutoring sessions, Doug was his favorite). They hired me to babysit over a long weekend. I asked them if Doug could come over and take us to a movie. That was where I discovered Doug’s way with children. We piled everybody in the back of his rusty orange pick-up and took them to the drive-in. Doug joked that I was his wife and these were our six children. I thought he was hilarious.
That night we talked late into the night. I told him things about myself that I had shared with nobody but Liz up to that point in my life. It really bugged me that I would do that, but I found the words pouring out of me like a river whose flow could not be stopped.
He just listened and comforted and never told a soul.
After about 12 dates we finally had our first kiss. It was in the doorway of his boss’s house. It was very magical. I was leaning in the doorway holding a big bowl of something. I was just looking at him and he came up and gently kissed me. I think there was an orchestra playing in the wooded lot next door.