Romantic? Not Me...

I am in the middle of the picture and Ivan is peering around me...

I didn't take the "Romantic" test Maria referred to. I already know I am not a romantic. I was told that in my junior year in college and have never forgotten it and I guess I have sort of lived up to that. You know how it is if someone tells you something that is a negative, you tend to never forget it and think it is gospel truth.

It was Ivan. I remember we met because I was at college early since I had been at summer shool and he was a transfer football player from Arizona. I don't remember too much about him but I looked him up in my letters to my Mom and I had written home that he was in drama, played the violin, sang, had been Stu Body President in Arizona, was bashful and nice. And with such a versatile personality he was different than any football player I had ever known.

I do remember we walked to lower campus sometimes together and he liked to interpret my dreams. He was studying Freud. It was a very busy quarter for me, I do remember that, and after I started dating him I neglected writing to my high school sweetheart and a missionary I was writing and they were both mad at me and I broke up with both of them.

But the only thing I remember about Ivan is that when we stopped dating we were talking on the phone and he said I was not romantic enough, whatever that means. It is the kind of thing you never forget.

When the missionary returned to the Y, we dated awhile but I decided I still like my high school sweetheart better and I went to Billings to teach school after graduating and tried once again to try and convert him. I failed, I came to California to teach and as far as I know, have never been known as a romantic...