One afternoon while I was working as a soda jerk at K/G Drugs, Lester and Linda Acker came in with a new friend. When I first saw them at the end of the counter I was awestruck. Sitting beside Linda was just about the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was the Ackers' new neighbor and her family had just moved in from Arizona.
I asked them what they wanted and I was surprised at how gracious the new girl was and how comfortable I was when we talked. Usually when I was introduced to someone of such beauty I would become a babbling fool.
Before they all left I asked her to go out with me that Friday. That too was unusual. The only time I ever did anything like that at the drugstore before was when I asked a girl to go with me to a church social on Lake Houston some years before. But that girl did not affect me anything like this girl was affecting me now. She said her name was Silvia and it would be sometime before I realized that she did not spell her name the English way but rather the Spanish way. The reason was she was born in Argentina to Mennonite missionaries and had been given a Spanish name -- Silvia Margarita.
That Sunday Bruce Voorhies and I, as Mormon priests, sat at the sacrament table, Silvia walked in with the Ellises (Linda and Lester and their mom and stepfather). Right away Bruce nudged me and told me he was going to find out who this new girl was. It was an immediate cause for alarm. I told him not to worry, that I had already met her and we were already going out.
The next several months were wonderful. Silvia and her younger brother and sister lived with her mother and her new husband, Jim Lee. Jim was a strange fellow, tall and dark, and I believe her mother might have married him so that she might have a place and some security for her children. Her older sister Karin and her brother Hank, who was just below her in order, were with her father in Pennsylvania. Her younger brother and sister, Robbie and Donnie, lived with Silvia, her mother, and Jim. I did not ask and never found out what circumstances brought her mother and father the point of separation.
I took Silvia to a drive-in theater on our first date and a few times after that. I really can't say much more about those dates to the drive-in because I can't remember much of the particulars. What I do remember is a date I had with her where I took her to a baseball game.
It was a doubleheader at old Colt stadium between the Houston Colt 45’s in the Milwaukee Braves. The game started early, around 5:30, so they could both be finished before midnight. Silvia wore a light blue sleeveless dress and she looked delightful in it. I was very excited about the game and I thought she might be too since one of the pitchers for Milwaukee was Warren Spahn. Not only that, Hank Aaron would be playing.
The afternoon was miserable. The temperature was in the high 90s and the humidity was awful. Through all this Silvia never complained. When it cooled down and things became more bearable, I think we both enjoyed our time together. A baseball game is a great place to hold a conversation. I believe it was here where Silvia told me her family was taking lessons from the missionaries. I was overawed. Things seemed to be falling right into place.
Only a few weeks later the missionaries came by our house and told me that Silvia and her family were going to be baptized. They asked the family which of the two missionaries they would prefer to baptize them. Someone asked (I like to think it was Silvia) if priests were allowed to baptize and the missionaries said yes. She said she would like for me to baptize her. They checked with Bishop Hardy and got his approval they were at my house to ask me if I wanted to do that. Of course I said yes.
The baptism took place on a Saturday afternoon over in the Broadway meetinghouse. We all went with the Ellis's in their 1963 Ford convertible. The Lees went in their car except for Silvia who rode with us. It was a special night for me and it appeared that my life was unfolding now just as it should.
The next thing I remember was taking Silvia to the Spring Fling, Alpha Phi Omega's spring banquet that was equivalent to Founders Day in the fall semester. Except this time I needed to wear a tuxedo. I seem to remember that Silvia was little distressed because her family could not afford for her to go rent a formal dress but I told her not to worry. Only the guys would be wearing tuxedos. She could wear whatever dress she wore to church. Once again when the time came she looked beautiful and I hoped it might just be possible to stay with her for the rest of my life.
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Bruce was driving a Triumph TR-3 now, a gift from his mom and dad after his Henry J gave up the ghost. One Saturday when Silvia’s sister Karin had come to town we spent the afternoon touring the city in his car. His back seat was very small and cramped, hardly meant for kids, much less for Silvia and me. I liked it.
Bruce took us out to Rice and we toured the campus. It was beautiful and seemed much more serene than the University of Houston. We took some pictures that I cherished until they were "somehow" lost sometime during my first marriage.
Accompanying my call to a Mormon mission to Uruguay was a form letter from President James Barton and instructions from the Murdock travel agency in Salt Lake City on what I needed to do to prepare. It said that while the church would pay for the transit to and from my mission but it would not pay for the costs to come to Salt Lake City. So when school ended I took the time to get my passport and get the required shots that the instructions said I needed.
That very same day I went with Silvia and her family on a picnic but because of the shots I was very sick. Silvia and I went off alone and spent most of the afternoon under the shade of a tree talking. I was so sick I lay down with my head in her lap. As sick as I was, it was wonderful. I gave her a missionary journal and asked her to keep it for me. I would write about my exploits in letters to her and she could transcribe them. She said she would.
There was a purpose behind this. I did not want to get any “Dear John” from her so I thought if I kept her involved in what I was doing I might possibly avoid it. I already had plans about some of the things we could do when the summer began just before I left but Silvia said it would be impossible. She would be leaving to see her father in Gettysburg the day after school let out. I was sick already and that really upset me.
Then all of a sudden she was gone and I was empty. I continued to work toward my mission but the fire I should have had was not there. Mom said I should end my days in Houston dating and I really did not want to do that.
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