Photo: Danville Apartment #3, Provo, Utah.
February 1980. I had just scrawled in my journal the night before (after a bad date) that I was sick of dating, it was a waste of my time, their money, that every guy was weird, and on and on.....and that the only guy I would even consider going out with was Frank Shields. I had only admired him casually from afar, seeing him washing his "corvette yellow" MG midget convertible in running shorts....his straight, longish (by BYU standards) hair that bounced when he walked.....not even entertaining the possibility that he might be interested in me. I saw him as a "jock", out of my league, and myself as the shy-around-guys "band nerd". I barely knew him, and most of what I knew came from my roommate who liked him with a capital "L". She would visit him at Toad Hall (next door) sometimes, and came home one day and announced that he reminded her of me.
Then, the night after my ominous journal entry, the phone rang. I answered, and a male voice said, "This is Frank Shields...I was wondering if you would go out with me." Because of my very recent journal entry, I was positive that one of my roommates had read my journal and was playing a trick on me. Just as the words, "Who is this...?" almost escaped my lips, I realized that the voice sounded nervous. Hmmmm......could it be? Then.....my roommate who had a crush on him could tell that I was being asked out, and quickly appeared right at my shoulder excitedly asking, "Who is it? Who is it?" That she liked him and had first "dibs" certainly did not escape me, and my immediate instinct was to say no. I was not the kind of girl to steal another's love interest. BUT... I also didn't have the heart to say no to someone who apparently had to work up the courage to ask me out. That, and I felt like "fate" had knocked on my door. So, after a brief, silent debate within.....should I? shouldn't I....I said yes.
When I hung up, my roommate wanted to know who it was.....so I bravely told her. It was Frank Shields. I fearfully waited for her reaction. Expecting her wrath, for that "excited for you" smile to turn to a vengeful frown, I was surprised and relieved when she told me that it was OK, because that very day she had redirected her affections to a darling young man named Marty. Whew!
Even though our first date started off rocky (Frank was an hour late because he didn't wake up from a nap....must have been excited, eh?), all's well that ends well, right? We went out for Mexican food, Frank ran a red light, we watched the movie "Windwalker", caroused around at BYU's Friday Night Live (I still have the blue plastic snail that we won that night in the geography booth), then polka-ed at the dance.....all in one night. And, believe it or not, he gave me a handshake at the door you see in the picture. I knew he was a keeper. Twenty-seven happy, adventurous years, 4 spectacular daughters, 1 perfect grandchild and one on the way later.....I'm so glad I said YES! What almost wasn't, IS.....and this shy-around-guys gal ended up with everything she always wanted.
