Dale and I had been enjoying school events together for several months. We went together to the amateur hour program and were again having fun-just being in each other’s company.
On the weekend leave in February, Dale and I; my roommate Edith Forgey and her boyfriend Charles Roesel; and my sister Edie, went to Arizona in our Hudson with Miss Russell as the chaperone. Something was wrong with the engine because we burned twenty-one quarts of oil on the 950-mile trip home! We would stop at nearly every service station and say, “Fill it with oil and check the gas.” When we got home Dad did some work on the car allowing us return to school without burning so much oil.
On the way back to MBA we visited Hoover Dam, touring the inside of the dam and watched as the turbines created the electricity. Dale and Charles were especially interested in this. We then drove through desolate Death Valley. Even in the coolness of February it was awfully hot, dry, and unwelcoming. We all determined we would never go back there again.
It was April 17, 1956, and the day of another memorable junior-senior picnic. This day was a better day than the one last year, because Dale was there with me. While we were watching the junior-senior ball game, (I am sure Dale would have loved being part of the game, but I felt special because he was spending time with me), Dale asked me to go steady again. It was the junior-senior picnic just a little over a year before when we had broken up. Now he was asking me to go steady again. This was not a surprise. I felt it was coming. We had prayed, and it seemed OK for me to say yes. Besides, my heart held a secret, and I was waiting for God’s timing. I wrote this note to myself that evening.
Dale is so sweet and thoughtful. I could not ask for anyone better. I really love him. What a contrast from the picnic last year. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day! It was April 17 when I was a freshman that Dale asked me to go steady the first time.
After the picnic Dale and I helped take the food back to the cafeteria. We were the only ones in the cafeteria. It was dark, and as we said good night to each other, Dale embraced me and kissed me. This was still 1956. This was still MBA. This was a great big “no-no”! No one else was around. It had been so long. It seemed so good, especially since we felt like we were getting by with something forbidden! We truly loved each other. I fairly floated back to the dorm on cloud ten!
It was only five and a half weeks until graduation. Days were packed with beach picnics, play periods, Saturday night programs, one more weekend leave when we could go home, and-oh yes, studies for classes and final exams.
Final exams were fast approaching and then the Cypress Bough (the school yearbook) was distributed. Everyone seemed more interested in writing in each other’s books than in studying. Dale was a very good student; I was a good student, and we completed that year with good grades, in spite of all the exciting, extra curricular activities.
Graduation at Monterey Bay Academy was an emotional, action-packed weekend full of services. It started with a consecration service on Friday night, then a baccalaureate program on Sabbath morning, a musical program Sabbath afternoon, class night on Saturday night, and finally commencement on Sunday morning. Dale told me he had carefully chosen a gift for me. When I opened the heavy package I saw the nine volume set of the Testimonies for the Church, by Ellen White. I was surprised by this gift, as it was not anything I had imagined. I did not have money for a gift for him.
Dale, Carolyn, Edith Forgey, Charles Roesel
My parents came from Arizona and Dale’s mother was there, too. We had a great picnic together after church on Sabbath. Sunday morning’s commencement service and the receiving of diplomas went by quickly, and then it was time to say good-bye to everyone. Tears were flowing from most of our eyes, but especially when Dale and I finally said farewell to each other. It seemed as though the world would stand still until we could see each other again. We hugged and kissed good-bye on the lawn in front of the girls’ dormitory. This was still MBA! This was 1956! We had graduated!
This is what we wrote in our year books at the end of our senior year.
Dear Carolyn, Well, here we are freshmen again! I remember my sophomore year at Modesto Union Academy and the first time I saw you on the bus, the annual trip, the meetings over in Riverbank. Remember the fire falls up at Wawona! It was with you that I went to my first banquet. The last one too! Remember the good times we had in looking for flowers on Sabbath! Then the time when Gary and I went up to the mountains to work. It sure seemed a long time between your letters! Remember the times I came down to see you when you lived in Oakdale and I lived in Napa. It was real nice to be able to come see you and take you over to the camp meeting. Remember the “lookout” and the first time we walked in the chapel and halls. I don’t think that I would have come to MBA if you had not persuaded me to come. I am glad you did too! I have really enjoyed the two years here. Here at MBA we have added quite a lot of thins to the long list (always getting longer), of memories. I hope you get a good job this summer and will be able to come to Pacific Union College next year. I wonder (as I said tonight at play period,) where you and I will be four years from now!! I hope I will be accepted into the College of Medical Evangelists and yo will be getting out of the nurses course! Well, we will see. I see that I am getting near the end of this so I love you and I will be seeing you at PUC next year. With all my love Dale PS: I.W.Y.F.M.W.
Dale had often used codes like this in writing to me, but this one did take a while to understand. It says, “I want you for my wife.” My cup of joy was filling up!
Dearest Dale, Well this is the end of our academy days. They have been fun, haven’t they? I remember all the times we were together at MUA (Modesto Union Academy)—school bus rides, picnics and Wawona! It was so much fun being with you on occasions like the Sabbath afternoon when we went up near Sonora and gathered wild flowers for my biology class and the time we started to walk around Conn Dam Lake. Then summer came and you left for Shaver Lake. We didn’t see each other all summer. I’ll never forget the first letter I got from you, then at the end of the summer when you came by our place and said you wouldn’t be able to go to school. That meant another nine months and the next summer of letters. But that wasn’t so bad because we saw each other quite a few times. At the PUC amateur hour, your sister Opal’s capping and the times you came just to see me (I guess). Remember the time we were living at Kellogg’s and we went for a walk and I said “a penny for your thoughts” Oh well,—— Then we came here. There are so many things I couldn’t even begin to mention them all. The supper down at Shultz’s, the weekend I went home with you and all the other things. Then there was a gap in the story until January 24. There was our weekend seminar trip. All school picnic, our trip home to Arizona, senior ditch day, college day, amateur hour, senior beach party, and of course the junior-senior picnic and April 17. This has been a good year, and as I look back I can begin to see what Miss Russell meant when she said, “If we just let the Lord put the pieces of our life’s puzzle together when it is finished we will have a more beautiful picture than we ever dreamed of.” The Lord hasn’t finished, but I still want Him to lead, I have a long way to go before I will be able to wear the crown that I hope is waiting for me. Pray for me dear and I’ll do the same for you. Lots of love, Carolyn
My Cup Overflows. Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Ratzlaff. All Scripture quotations—except where otherwise noted—are from The New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1994 by the Lockman Foundation, used by permission. All rights reserved. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
Carolyn has always been a positive person enjoying life and outdoor activities such as hiking and gardening, and she and her husband currently raise a good portion of their own food in small grow boxes. She also reads many health journals and is often surprised at the contrast between what was taught through the writings of Ellen White on forbidden items of diet and health, and the beneficial evidence of these same items which is supported by a plethora of scientific studies.
She and her husband Dale Ratzlaff have two married sons and four grandchildren.
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