Emma #97: Ruth & Bob's Wedding—August 7, 1935
An epistolary account of the wedding, honeymoon trip, and return home.
In the 1990s, Ruth took part in an Elderhostel course at Eckerd College in which memoirs were written in the form of letters. This letter to her sister Katharine describes the wedding and honeymoon trip.
Grants Pass, Oregon
August 20, 1935
Dear Katharine,
This is the first chance I have had to write to you since our wonderful wedding on the seventh. I am sure Mother has written you about some of our plans—and everything came off as we had hoped.
Aunt Elizabeth and Cousin Betty arrived from Los Angeles just the day before. Betty is about my size, so she was able to wear the blue recital dress that you had sent me. She made a very pretty maid of honor. The two Schieferstein cousins wore dresses of their own. Aunt Gertie played the piano and of course little Joanne was the flower girl. I must tell you a cute thing about her. She was told that the flower petals she carried in the basket were for the bride to walk on—so she carefully stepped on each petal as she dropped it!
Mother and I worried about what I would wear. Finally, at a store here in Grants Pass, we found a white organza, trimmed in double-pleated ruffles around the skirt and around the cape-type collar. We bought some netting for a short veil. The dress was on sale for five dollars! Bob had a suit made in Medford (the next big town) and he also got my wedding ring there. The suit was barely finished in time. It is a very good looking black worsted.
You can see a picture of Ruth in her wedding dress in the August 1935 post.
You probably remember that I always insisted that I wanted to be married in a church with a center aisle. Well, the Methodist church here, where the folks have been attending, has proved to be ideal.
Here’s the interior of the Newman United Methodist Church, where Ruth and Bob were married.
However, another dream had to be abandoned. I had read in some novel where the pews all had hollyhocks tied to them to make a flowered path for the bride. I had to settle for gladiolas! There are gardens here that raise them for bulbs for shipping. The fields are huge. Since there are several rows of the same color, it was easy to pick just what we wanted. So each pew had a bunch of glads tied up with a ribbon. Each of the cousins carried a sheaf of glads, and there were two large baskets of them at the front. All of these cost one dollar. All of the flowers were pink and white.
Gladiolas!
As a wedding gift, one of the ladies in the church made me a beautiful bouquet. It was made of sweetheart roses and baby's breath, with ribbons and flowers in a cascade. I also had real roses in the crown of the veil.
I found the wedding book from their ceremony. The scripture reference mentioned in the pastor’s dedication (from the King James Version, which was the standard Bible text at this time) is:
Philippians Chapter 4 4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
After the ceremony, which was at ten o’clock in the morning (it rains here every afternoon) we went to Mother and Dad’s home for a luncheon which we had prepared. Of course the entrée was chicken. The folks have plenty of those. I baked a three-tiered wedding cake. I wish I knew a little more about decorating! But I hope it impressed Bob that I could cook.
Here’s a vintage wedding cake recipe in case you want to make your own.
The day before the wedding, Bob got a letter from his brother Don, giving all the reasons why he shouldn’t marry me. It was too late to change our plans, and we didn’t want to! I hope I can prove him wrong—and that our love will last a long time. “They” may fear that marriage will interfere with the musical career that seems ahead for Bob. I’m going to help with that, too.
We have just returned from our wedding trip. You, I’m sure, have never heard of one like it. When we first came out here from Iowa, we helped out at a Methodist summer camp. We met several of the ministers from the state who arranged for us to give concerts at their churches and planned our itinerary around them. We took up collections to finance our trip.
It was a beautiful trip: First to Salem to visit Uncle Berne, Aunt Elizabeth, and cousin Betty (who had been the maid of honor), then west to the coast and south, across the “fjords” on ferries. They are building new bridges, so I suppose the ferries will soon be retired.
Here’s a story about the bridges that replaced the ferries on the Oregon coast.
Bob has been on a health food kick lately. He bought whole wheat at a feed store and rigged up a pan of Mother's, fastened to a flat manifold of the Franklin. We cooked the wheat for miles and miles and it finally got done enough to eat.
Just for fun…I found a book called Manifold Destiny, which has a collection of recipes for cooking on your car engine.
Two memorable things happened on the trip. The very first day, looking out on the Pacific ocean, I saw a spout of water and it turned out to be a whale. We watched him for a long time going under and then appearing again.
The other experience embarrassed me at first…Bob was bold enough to go to the deck of a Japanese freighter and ask if we could go on board while they were loading. The officers were very friendly, and we were escorted all around by the Purser. He even showed us his private quarters. That was really a thrill. We had of course never seen an ocean or a big ship before.
I found a mention of a Japanese freighter called the Shunten Maru that apparently docked in Coos Bay, OR regularly to load lumber for Japan. Here’s a little more information about her, including the fact that she was sunk by an American submarine in Nov. 1944 during World War II.
Here are some pictures I believe were from this trip to the coast.
Now we are back home, ready to start the school year. A few days after we returned from our wedding trip, the young people at the church surprised us with a chivaree. They arrived with food and all the makings for homemade ice cream. This was a bit unusual, for most such affairs are much more pagan than this—the “friends” bring noisemakers, and expect to be fed. The only thing they made us do was for me to get into Dad’s wheelbarrow, and Bob ran me across the street and back. They also gave us a beautiful framed picture of Crater Lake which had been colored by hand. You never saw such a deep intense blue. People say the lake is really that blue.
I found the picture among the family files, and was delighted to learn where it came from.
Later, one evening at a church dinner, the whole church gave us a shower. They fixed up a coaster wagon like a covered wagon which was filled with many lovely household gifts. On the outside there was a sign “Oregon or Bust.” Mother and Dad have really made a place for themselves here in the church, and we are benefiting from it. I doubt that we would have been feted any more if we had stayed in Hubbard.
It has been a disappointment that none of our relatives except the ones already living here could come to our wedding. I am especially sad that there just was not enough money for you to make the trip. I do appreciate your sending me the one hundred dollars that made it possible for me to come west. Of course you know that Bob hitchhiked. And he arrived with more money than he started with, because he sang at a theater in Nebraska on the way, and they gave him five dollars.
The old Franklin that you bought the folks was a great car for our trip. Bob has bought a Model T Ford—pretty old—for $15—which he knows he can keep running.
You are a wonderful, generous sister. Someday we may not live so far apart.
With much love,
Ruth
I hope you’ve enjoyed this special edition of the journal project. See you next week for September 1935.