We planned our wedding for December 17, 1972, in Karen’s home town: The Dalles, Oregon. It was the Sunday after the end of the first quarter of my junior year at George Fox College. Then we’d have two weeks for a Christmas honeymoon in California, staying with my folks in Whittier for part of that time. My folks planned a reception for us in their church between Christmas and New Years.

It was a great plan, but almost wrecked by the weather. The week before, a blizzard hit the Columbia Gorge and Portland, closing the freeway to The Dalles for several days.

My family (2 parents, 3 siblings, and 4 grandparents) had flown up from California and were staying at the Holiday Inn in Portland. The snow had trapped them in the hotel. I met with them and Dad tried to convince us to postpone the wedding, or to have it there in Portland. But I wasn’t willing to adjust, and I thought we could drive to The Dalles.

On Saturday the weather cleared up a bit and the freeway was opened. It was covered with ice. We rented three cars for the trip. I wasn’t old enough, so I was not allowed to drive. My friend (and best man) Craig Bersagel drove, and I think Dad drove. We got out on the highway to the place where we were supposed to put on our chains, and found that one of cars had the wrong set of chains. We had to abandon it off the road, and cram into two cars.

As we slid across the ice up to The Dalles – it took six hours for what was normally about a 90 minute trip – my two grandmothers had two completely different ways of responding to the situation. Grandma (my dad’s mom) was terrified. Every time we slipped on the ice, she would cry out in fear. Annie (my mom’s mom, in a different car) was thrilled with all of the ice formations, especially the waterfalls, and kept exclaiming about the wonder of it all.

The rehearsal was planned for Saturday night, but I don’t think it actually took place. We did have a rehearsal dinner; it was at Spooky’s Pizza. Karen skipped it and went to her parents’ house. There was work to do on the dress!

The church was up on a hill, and the road top it was covered in snow and ice. Big, heavy cars couldn’t make it up to the parking lot, but Karen’s little Corolla did just fine. Somebody set up a shuttle service with a small pickup truck to get people up to the church.

Our wedding decorations were simple. We had just one floral bouquet, in the middle, and a small Christmas tree on each side. Karen made silver and red balls to decorate the trees.

The ceremony was not well-attended; many of our friends from Newberg and Portland were not able to make it. But the ceremony accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish! Of course the weather and the roads cleared up the next day and we made our way south for Karen’s first Christmas with the Votaw family.

On the way down to Whittier we went on a scary curvy road, at night, through the forest between Grants Pass and Eureka – seemed like we were dodging log trucks the whole way. The Northern California coast was beautiful! We had planned to spend a couple of nights in San Francisco, and when we got to the hotel I attempted to pay for the room with a check. That didn’t go over too well – I had no experience with these things. So I called my dad and he gave me instructions on how to obtain money by wire from my bank. After that we got traveler’s checks, and enjoyed the rest of the trip.

We spent a nice Christmas with my family in Whittier. My family hosted a wedding reception for us at First Friends Church for all of our relatives and church friends in California. When the week was over we drove back to Newberg and our apartment, ready to start our life together in Oregon.

The Working Years, by Dick Votaw (part 17)
(part 16) (part 15) (part 14) (part 13) (part 12) (parts 10-11) (part 9) (part 8)
(part 7) (part 6) (part 5) (part 4) (part 3) (part 2) (part 1)

The winter of 1972 saw our first born get married. Doree and I were to get our first in-law and we were very excited about this. Dave had finished his Sophomore year at George Fox and even though he was only twenty he knew he had found the right girl to share his life, and indeed she was the right one as we have loved her as one of our own. The wedding took place in The Dalles during one of the worst snow storms and freezes in years. Doree and I flew into Portland and rented cars to drive to The Dalles. We brought Mother, Walter, and the other three kids with us and the drive to the wedding was something I never want to experience again. It took about seven hours to get there with chains on all the way and Multnomah Falls was frozen solid. John was only ten at the time and he was quite a handful to manage on such a trip. We made it and the wedding was beautiful and the drive back to Portland the next day was much easier as it had started to thaw out.

Our honeymoon trip included a visit to Lithia Park in southern Oregon.

Chenowith Baptist Church, where the ceremony took place

Karen enjoys her first Christmas with the Votaws in Whittier.

Here we are all dressed up for our Whittier wedding reception.