John’s aunt came to the door and said, “Johnny…..and you’re…. wife?” John told her not yet….we are still trying to get married. We hadn’t been there very long and his aunt convinced John he should call his mom and let her know that we were ok. When John called his mom, she told him that he had received draft notice from the Army. He was supposed to report to the draft board in about 30 days. So John asked me if I still wanted  to get married. Of course I did.

John’s aunt set each of us up in our own bedrooms. She was so sweet to get me out a night gown, and several items that a traveling girl would need. I did have my purse with my makeup. That was one pretty important thing for a 15 year old girl. John’s aunt was going to help us find out the rules and laws in New Mexico. Back then we didn’t have the internet, so everything had to be by phone calls and research. We found out that we had to have a required blood test that took 3 days to get the results. So we went to a local clinic and each gave blood.  John’s Aunt and Uncle remembered they had friends that went down Juarez Mexico to get married. So we made the decision that the next morning we would head out for Old Mexico. That night we went to a movie. We went to see “The Graduate.” I probably wasn’t even old enough to go to that movie.

The next morning bright and early we got out the map and planned our trip. It was about a 300 mile drive. We still had John’s granny’s car. So off we went. We decided not to drive into Mexico, that we were going to park in El Paso, Texas and take a taxi. John had some cash and we didn’t want to take extra cash into Mexico so we took the pack of cigarettes that John bought, took out the cigarettes, stuffed the money in the empty pack, then put some cigarettes back in to hide the money. Then we put the pack with our hidden money in the glove compartment.

When the taxi picked us up, we told him we wanted to get married. He probably could tell we looked a bit young so he asked us if we had papers. We told him yes, that we did. This was on a Sunday in March 1969. He told us that is was going to cost us extra because it was on a Sunday. He started driving, and it seemed like a long drive. He first drove us to the judge’s house. The taxi driver went to the door, and talked to someone, then came back and told us that the judge was at a funeral, that it was going to cost a little extra because the judge was at a funeral. We sat there in the taxi till the judge drove up in a car. When the judge arrived the taxi driver got out and started speaking Spanish to the judge. The judge was a distinguished looking man all dressed up in a suit. Then the taxi driver said the judge wanted to see our papers. Boy…..we were really sweating it. The taxi driver handed the papers to the judge. They talked back and forth….The judge looked over the paperwork, then looked in the car at us, then talked some more. Then the taxi driver said that we needed to give the judge $35.00 . That was the amount because it was Sunday and the Judge had been to a funeral. After we gave the money, the taxi followed the judge to his office.

We all got out and went into the judges office. Of course I had on my red A-line skirt and the stupid flowered blouse that I chose to wear on Saint Patrick’s Day, all because it had some green leaves on the flowers…. not realizing that it would end up being my wedding dress. We walked into this beautiful office with a huge marble desk. The judge gave us a marriage license to fill out. We filled out the paperwork, but we had to have a witness. The taxi driver said he would be our witness. After we filled out all the papers, the judge stood up on his side of the desk and had us to stand up on our side of the desk. The taxi driver stood beside us with both hands holding his hat, like he was really proud to be part of our wedding ceremony as the witness. The judge spoke in a very strong Spanish accent. He started right off trying to pronounce our full names…..Pamela….. do you take John…… to be your husband. I said Yes. Then he said, John…. Do you take Pamela…. to be your wife.  John just stood there. No answer. Nothing. I sort of elbowed him and said, well John, good grief. (I thought to myself, here you drug me all across the United States and into Mexico and you’re not gonna say yes?) Then he said, Yes,… yes,… yes! He said later, he just couldn’t believe we finally did it. We finally got married. So, the judge gave us our marriage license, which is mostly written in Spanish. We got back in the taxi and headed to our car in El Paso. The taxi driver shook our hands and told us congratulations. We got back in John’s granny’s car and headed back to New Mexico. WE FINALLY DID IT! But, what had we done?   I don’t know exactly what we thought, but I don’t think we spoke three words to each other all the way back to John’s aunt and uncles. I’m not even sure why we drove back there that night, except we knew we still needed to get home to Oregon with what money we had left.

On our way back we hit a sand storm, or dust storm. Whatever you want to call it. It was so thick. We could see it coming from a distance. We had to slow down to almost a crawl, because you couldn’t even see a car in front of you. You could even taste dirt in your mouth. I had never seen anything like that before.

It was later that night that we arrived at John’s aunt and uncles house. We decided that we should call our parents and tell them that we got married. I made John call his parents first, because I was pretty nervous about calling my mom. I took the phone and dialed mom. She answered the phone, I acted like nothing had happened. I said, Hi mom. She said, “hello.” Then I asked her how she was, she answered fine, fine. So I proceeded to ask her how everyone was, one by one. Name by name. She answered the same for each person, fine, fine. Then I said, “well, mom, I got married today.” She said, “not legally dear, not legally!” Then I said, “ok, I better go now.” That was awful. I was so scared to tell her, and so sad that she was so disappointed in me. I loved my family. I loved being a part of such a large family. We always had a fun time. I hadn’t really been away from them except to go to church camp. I certainly wasn’t getting married to get away from them. They were all so important to me.

John’s aunt and uncle had set up a bedroom really nicely for us. His uncle teased and teased us…He kept saying, don’t ya’ll want to play a game or something. Maybe watch some T.V. But honestly my nerves were pretty shot. When we got in the bedroom, John got tickled and started laughing. He giggled and giggled. I said, please stop, they are gonna think you are laughing at me. Why are you laughing so much? He said, I don’t know….It’s hard to believe. We finally did it! We finally got married!

The next morning, we wanted to go home. Home to Oregon. But, here we had John’s granny’s car in New Mexico. His Uncle said he was going to Arkansas the next month and would tow the car back to granny.  So we left him some money for the extra trouble and gas. Then we called the airlines to find out how much tickets were to go home. (to be continued)