Marilyn's Birthday

Yesterday, August 4, was the birthday of my daughter, Darlene, Carolyn’s first cousin Marilyn Faulk, and former President Barack Obama. 

I was invited to go to a surprise birthday party for Marilyn for her 70th birthday, so I picked up Darlene and we went to see many family members we haven’t seen in ages, and enjoy ice cream, cake and punch and tell stories from years past.

Sometime during the festivities it occurred to me that things could have been much different if different choices had been made back in 1963.

During the fall of 1962 I went to Walla Walla College to study Engineering, and found a friend in Don Satterfield, who was also studying Engineering. We took several classes together, and he also worked in the machine shop there, teaching me the skills needed to operate the various machines to shape useful parts out of metal.

Don Satterfield took me to his house and introduced me to his family—his wife Laverna, and his two children, David and Darla. They all came from Oklahoma, and had many relatives still back there.

Laverna, after she got to know me, took it upon herself to help me find a girlfriend. I guess she decided that I was lonely and needed female companionship. Actually, I was a late bloomer, had not gotten interested in girls yet, and was trying my best to stay focussed on my studies. I had no time for girls.

In a few weeks, Laverna noticed a girl that seemed to appear at places I was scheduled to go. Her name was Paulette Davis, and I remember she was from Redlands, California. She had long brunette hair and was quite attractive, but I was not going to be attracted. My attention was on my studies, and when Laverna pointed out how many times she showed up and said, “Hi, Don” before morning classes or church services, it was a complete revelation to me. I had not noticed. 

After several weeks of Laverna nudging me toward her, and me pushing back for all I was worth, Laverna gave up trying, and so did Paulette.

After Christmas, Laverna had another idea. She showed me pictures of her family back in Oklahoma, and she especially noted this one girl, her niece Marilyn, who was single, pretty, nice tempered, and was almost old enough to date. I had to agree she was pleasing to the eyes, but I still had to argue back to Laverna that I was not interested in girls yet. Besides, she was only fifteen years old. Laverna said that wasn’t a big deal down in Oklahoma. Lots of girls got married at that age.

I knew a little about that. My classmate in my freshman year found herself pregnant two weeks before the end of the school year, and she and her boyfriend were hustled off to Texas to get married quickly. I think in California the guy would have been in big trouble. 

Still, I’m not interested.

A few years later, I met up with Don and Laverna, and she was showing me pictures of Marilyn again. She had come out to California to visit, and she was really sorry I hadn’t gotten to meet her. I would have really liked her, she said. She was very pretty with big hair and a radiant smile.

By this time I had a girlfriend back in my hometown of Merced, so Laverna once again failed to get me interested in Marilyn. Laverna tried hard, but no dice.

More years later, after I got out of the US Army, I visited the Satterfield’s again, and found work down in Southern California, where they lived. I lived in my own apartment, and travelled periodically back to Merced, CA, where my girlfriend lived. 

Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder, I found out, and she was holding out getting more serious until I went back to college and got my degree. I had been forced to drop out for lack of funds, but I was earning good wages as a machinist and didn’t see the need to go back to school.

One day when I went to visit the Satterfield’s, I found Laverna’s niece Carolyn and her daughter Darlene staying there. She had separated from her husband, and Laverna had invited her to stay with them while they worked it out.

Once again Laverna saw an opportunity to get me into her family. She regularly invited me over for dinner to eat with them, and bragged about how good a cook Carolyn was. I got to know Carolyn well during this time, but we were never serious. She was still married, and I still had a fiancé up in Merced. 

Carolyn went back to live with her husband to try to make her marriage work, and everything went smoothly until Carolyn called me to say she had just sent her husband packing. Loaded up the car with his clothes and told him to drive back to Oklahoma and get a divorce. 

Eventually Carolyn and I did fall in love and get married, so to make a long story shorter, Laverna finally got her wish and got me hooked up with a girl of her choosing.

It just didn’t turn out to be Marilyn Box. Sorry about that, Marilyn.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Laverna for her dogged persistence and hard work finding me a good woman. We loved each other for 49 years, and I wouldn’t have traded our life and love for anything.