Marvin and I didn't have 90 days to know each other. We met in September 1964, while he was on leave from the US Army, he stayed in Barcelona for a week or so, we wrote to each other, then he came back in December, he stayed a couple of weeks, during that time he asked my father for my hand in marriage (sounds so old fashioned!) and gave me some money, I think $100 to buy a wedding ring since he didn't have enough time to go shopping with me. We kept on writing letters and exchanging pictures etc, and then he came in February for about 10 days, and on the 19th we got married. Shortly after he went back to the States, and sent me an airplane ticket Barcelona-San Francisco. I went to the US in April 1965.
We didn't have computers in 1965, but I talked to my dad about San Francisco and California since he had been there. I had no idea where Dixon was, other than it was close to San Francisco, and that made me happy because it was the time when the hippies were in SF with flowers in their hair etc. and I thought it would be fun!
Marvin came to pick me up at the SF airport, it was night time so I didn't get to see much of the surroundings. We drove to Dixon and went to his parent's house. His parents were up waiting but his brother and sisters were sleep. I remember Mary coming to the living room, half sleep said hi and went back to bed. I was tired and hungry so we didn't stay there very long, his parents didn't say much, I am sure I talked a lot but I doubt they understood what I was saying. Then we drove to the house we were going to live in for a while, we rented it, but it was for sale.
The next day we drove around Dixon and it was a very rural small town, with not a lot of amenities, like cafes, restaurants, etc. It surprised me there were no people walking around, just cars driving by. I remember Marvin buying some donuts the first morning, I had never had donuts before and they were tasty. I liked a lot of the new foods, hamburgers, big steaks, etc. I remember thinking onion rings were calamari and was disappointed they were not, but I got to really like onion rings too :)
On May 15, Marvin's parents gave us a wedding shower. That was very nice of them, and I got to meet a lot of the family and friends. Here's a picture of Marv and I opening presents.
I met some of the family, my favorites were Ruth and Monk (they gave us a drink when we went to visit), and their sons Larry and Doug. Larry was in High School and was nice looking and fairly close to my age, he was 18 and I was 21. One of the things that surprised me about Dixon, is there were no young people, it seems after high school they either moved, joined the army or got married.
I really don't remember too much about the first couple of months. It was hard for me to be with his parents because they were nice people but they never said much of anything, or asked me about where I was from, or about my family etc. It was quite a change from my family. Also they were Baptist and didn't drink and I didn't like to have cool aid with my meals at their house.
I remember a conversation I had with Marshall shortly after I arrived. He told me when Marvin wrote that he was going to marry a girl from Spain, he went to his pastor and after praying and talking things over with Opal, they decided they would accept Marvin's decision. I didn't make me feel really welcome.
Marvin's grandfather was by far my very favorite person. He was amazing and he was so nice to me, he came to visit me when I was alone at home and asked me about my family and said he understood I might miss them a lot, he would bring an Atlas and asked me to show him where Barcelona was, and asked me about my school, and my job, and my feelings. He told me stories about being young in Oklahoma when it was a territory. I loved him.
I missed my family a lot, and my friends and my city. I wish we had skype then like they do now. All those 90 days fiances talk often with their families. That would have been wonderful.
