The police officer came up right behind us and passed us as fast as he could. Whew…….we were so thankful.  So we continued on to John’s aunts house. When we got to her house, she opened the door and said” Johnny and your…….wife?” John said, well we are trying to get married. His aunt told us that we should call our parents and let them know we were ok. We called home that night and our parents told us to come home and they would talk with us about getting married.  It was a pretty good idea, because John was gonna have to get back to his job at the mill back home. Also the laws were the same in New Mexico. You had to be 21 without parents consent and 16 with parents consent. So off we were heading back to Oregon. On our way home, we were taking the coastal route from California to Oregon.….. the roads were curvy and they had signs saying watch for falling rocks. We didn’t think much about the signs because we had seen them for miles and miles…..well……all of a sudden here comes these rocks just tumbling off of the mountain side and starting smashing on the windshield and on the roof of the car….. John screamed like a girl which got me tickled …probably along with my nerves.

I’m not gonna lie…that was pretty awkward heading home to face our parents. I was always the “goodie two shoes sort of girl.”  I always tried to obey my parents and do what they said. I always wanted to please them. So this was completely out of character for me and I was a bit scared to face especially my mom. She was sort of like a loving sergeant. She had 7 children and we all knew what that snapping finger meant. She never really had to tell us something twice.

Not to mention, since I didn’t call or show up for the game to let them know I wouldn’t be there, I had to give up my position as cheerleader. That part was very sad, because, I LOVED being a cheerleader.

 Anyhow….the 1969 red and black Ford Ranchero which was John’s pride and joy…was now pretty banged up. A hole in the roof and a broken windshield along with several small dents.

We both went home to our parents. John went back to work at the mill and I went back to school. I turned 15 years old and my mom said for us to go to the courthouse and talk to the judge.

It was snowing the morning we headed on the freeway to the county courthouse. The courthouse was about 30 miles away. All of the cars were driving very slow and cautiously. We saw a guy that we knew was visiting from California. He was going so very slow and over steering. John said, “Look at that guy….people from California don’t know how to drive in the snow….so we passed him….and our car started sliding to the left….then sliding to the right……we needless to say were now in front of the guy from California…… our car slid all the way to the right and our car hit the guard rail….smashing the front right bumper into the tire…..the guy from California stopped to see if we were ok…..

After John pulled the bumper out…we headed back on our way to the court house. I looked back on the freeway at all the white snow…and I said, “what are all those black strips all over the road?” John looked in the rear view mirror and told me it was the tire shredding. So we pulled over again, pulled the front bumper out further and continued on to the court house to meet with the judge ………………..

We walked in and asked to speak with the judge…..we were so scared. She asked us what this was in regards to…..we told her we wanted to get married. The woman at the desk told us to have a seat and the judge would be out of court in a few minutes…We waited with wet palms not really talking…

Finally the lady said we could come this way…we walked into the Judge’s chambers….He was sitting behind what seemed like a huge desk. I was so scared….He had on a black robe ….I guess because he had just been in court. He said…”What can I help you kids with?”  (to be continued)