As I walk across the desert, thinking back to our 2003 trip to Wales, I seem to have lost my notes for some of the trip. As I was, however, looking for those notes, I ran across a piece my sister wrote for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration. It’s appropriate that put this story in this part of the narrative, as the beginning of their story took place out here in the Nevada desert.
My sister called her narrative, “Of Widespread Interest: The Wedding of Bob and Sharyn Larsen December 18, 1953. The narrators are the grandchildren of Bob and Sharyn.
Jeff: I ran across an interesting news article the other day. The headline really caught my attention. It said, Sharyn Higham is the Bride of Robert G. Larsen. The article started like this: Of widespread interest is the marriage of Miss Sharyn Higham to Robert G. Larsen, Jr. Parents of the lovely bride are Mr. and Mrs. Francis Cope Higham, Oakland. Mr. Larsen is son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gordon Larsen, Lafayette, California.
Tammy: That really is of widespread interest, Jeff! Then what does it say?
Jeff: Vows were solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple Friday morning. President Robert D. Young officiated. Immediately following the wedding the bride’s grandmother, Mrs. Willard B. Farr, 1457 E 13th South honored the couple with a wedding breakfast in her home.
Nick: Cool. I wonder how Granddad and Sharyn meet:
Sean: It’s funny you should ask, Nick, because our researchers have been studying those issues surrounding the courtship and marriage of Sharyn and Granddad for a number of years. We think we now have, if not the definitive answer, at least a close approximation of how the events unfolded. Jeremy is going to read what Granddad had to say about meeting Sharyn. This is from Granddad’s oral history, taken down in 2001.
Jeremy: My parents and Sharyn’s parents were in a group called the Club, and the Club was for the purpose of studying the scriptures, according to my father, and then playing Rook, because they couldn’t play cards.
Nick: What’s rook?
Jeremy: I have not idea. Then Bob said, This thing went on for a long time, and they got to be very good friends, all members of the Club, and we’d go to picnics together and so on. Sharyn’s folks had joined when they moved into Oakland. And so I was told that I should get to know Sharyn up at the Y. Which I did.
Liz: Sharyn told the same story like this, in her oral history, taken down in 2003: A friend of mine from Stockton lived with a girl from Berkeley named Dorothy Harker, who introduced me to Bob. All I remember about it is that she said, his parents are in the club, too, you know, the Rook playing club that parents belonged to. And I couldn’t have told you who the person was that she introduced me to that night. I had no memory of his name, of his face. When it got to be Thanksgiving, we were looking for a ride home. And Glen Harmon was the source of the ride home. Dorothy knew him well enough to ask him. And Bob was on that trip. And that was were he made an impression on me. He always says, I’d met you before that.
Justin: Bob had more to say about that ride home. Glen Harmon had a 1939 Mercury. And he decided we’d all go home for Thanksgiving in this Mercury. So we did. It was really cold. We took seven people in that car. And the temperature in Elko was a hideous minus 14 or something. The car’s heater would heat the big of the person sitting directly in front of it, and LaPrele went 17 hours without moving, so she could have the heater.
Brittany: And Sharyn said this: We’d stop occasionally to get something to eat or something to drink, and to go to the bathroom, and she never left that car. And I remember, there was a point at which the girls were whispering and the boys were whispering, and so we all knew what we were whispering about, so we all just giggled together about it. But oh, it was cold. We got to know each other. Well, we were so crowded, we would have anyway. So that was where I really met Bob.
Chelsea: So after Thanksgiving, they both went back to the Y to take finals. Here’s what Sharyn had to say about that: He invited me to go to a movie during finals week. I agreed to go, and I remember, the girls in the dorm were just absolutely appalled that I was doing this. And he stood me up. He claims he doesn’t know why. To this day he claims that he doesn’t know why. But I was so mad.
Devon: After that, Sharyn didn’t want to talk to Granddad again, but he had brought a car up to Provo at Thanksgiving, and was giving her a ride back to California for Christmas, so she couldn’t stay mad at him. Here’s what Sharyn had to say about Christmas: When we got home, I had my boyfriend here named Dick Hatfield, the boy I’d left behind. And they always had a big dance on Christmas night, in Berkeley. And Dick didn’t ask and didn’t ask, and I was getting peeved. Cause I thought he was taking me for granted. Indeed he was. And so Bob called me up and asked me to that dance so I went with Bob. Dick immediately asked me out for New Year’s Eve, which was what I had in mind.
Kate: Dick Hatfield stayed in the picture for a while. Then Sharyn said, One day I realized that it was Dick Hatfield’s brown eyes that were grabbing me, and that this was probably not a very good reason to marry somebody. And then Dick’s family was transferred to Cleveland about midsummer. And then it was after that Bob and I got serious. But Bob was supposed to go on this mission to Guatemala. He even had his missionary farewell. Bought his hat.
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Will Bob go on his mission? Will Sharyn wait for him? What brought this couple together? You will have to wait. Until then, know that I have walked728,885 steps in 60 days. That is, I have walked 345 miles since leaving my home in Alameda. I will be in Winnemucca in 43 more miles.
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