I was 18 years old, it was 1967 and I’d just graduated from high school. In September I left my home, 6 miles from the Oregon coast in Toledo, Oregon, to go to college in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland is in the southern part of the state about 5 hours away from Toledo, I didn’t know anyone in Ashland. I was very shy and it wasn’t easy for me to make friends. My roommate had a boyfriend and was from the Ashland area so she wasn’t around much. I was alone quite a lot.
I was by myself in my room one night in October about a month after school started. I was feeling lonely and all of a sudden I had a realization come over me. It felt like there was an all knowing presence telling me things. It felt like God was talking to me. He told me that I wasn’t going to have close girlfriends but that I was going to have a close boyfriend. The boyfriend would have blond hair and be from California. I was going to have to move far away but eventually I’d be able to come back.
The next night, I was in my dorm room with my door open. A friend of mine, Angie, from my floor had gotten a call on the intercom. A guy she had met in one of her classes had come to visit with a group of his friends. She didn’t want to face all of these boys by herself so she got several of us from the floor to go downstairs with her. There was a wide hallway near the lobby into the dorm. This hallway went between the girl’s dorms and was where the candy vending machines were. There were probably 8 to 10 of us. We all kind of sat around on the floor. I remember Brian sitting next to me and asking where I was from. I said “Toledo”. He said, “Ohio”? I said “yes”. I had gotten tired of that question and thought I’d answer yes for a change, thinking I’d never see this guy again. Then he wanted to know why I’d come so far away from home to go to college. I hadn’t expected to have to answer any questions. I’m not sure what I said, but I remember having a tough time coming up with an answer. The R.A. (resident assistant) came and asked the group to move because we were kind of blocking the hallway. The group decided to go down to the basement, there were ping pong and foosball tables down there. Everyone went down to the basement but I decided to go outside for some fresh air.
I went outside and sat on the side of the steps and watched the night happenings. It wasn’t long before Brian joined me. I was very surprised. He was so easy to talk to. That was very different for me. I hadn’t been around boys very much and I felt like I didn’t know what to say around them. Talking to Brian was very easy, comfortable and natural, after that first lie! He was sitting close to me and I thought maybe he didn’t have enough room so I moved over and he did, too. Oh, I remember thinking I guess he wants to sit this close. We made a date to go to the dance together the next night at the Student Union.
The next night we went to the dance and had a really good time. We agreed to meet the next morning for breakfast ( Sunday donuts) at the dinning hall. From then on we always ate dinner together at the dorms dinning hall, on the weekend we ate every meal together. We went out every week to the dance and/or a movie. It was always so easy to be with Brian and felt so right. Brian had blond hair at the time because he was in the pool swimming all of the time.
Brian asked me to marry him at Agate Beach, Oregon when we were visiting my family. It seemed like such a momentous decision. It was hard for me because I hadn’t had any other boyfriends and I wondered what someone else might be like. I remember thinking that it would be so fun to live and experience life together. I’m sure glad we got married and I made the decision I did. I feel very lucky, I love being married to my best friend.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 