Goodness… How time does fly. This Sunday, September 1, 2013, will be the 45th Anniversary of the wedding of Patty Sue Daffern and Leland K. Meitzler. Yes. That’s us. And it’s really hard to believe that 45 years have gone by.
We were married at 2 pm, September 1, 1968 in the Puyallup, Washington Seventh-day Adventist Church. The pastor who performed the ceremony was Pastor Larry Kurtz. He actually led out at the Enumclaw Seventh-day Adventist Church, but consented to come to Puyallup and perform our wedding ceremony for us. The Puyallup church was our home church, Patty and I both having attended there, along with our parents, since we were children. Yes – I’ll admit, we were nearly children when we married, both of us being but 18 years old. However, we’d been best friends since we were 12, so it’s not like we’d just met the week before. The church where we were married was new at that time, but has since been out-grown, and sold, with the congregation now meeting at a new church on Shaw Road.
The Shaw Road property was purchased about 1960, encompassing several acres where they built the Nelson-Crane school, and shortly thereafter a gymnasium, where our reception was held following the service at the church. The school, as well as the gymnasium have all now been removed, making space for the new Northwest Christian School, as well as the new church.
My brother, Neil Meitzler, and my mother, Virginia Cornett Feller Claussen Meitzler, decorated the church, and made the flower arrangements, bouquets, and boutonnieres. Neil was really good at that kind of thing, being a life-long artist. As I remember it, my mom got the flowers, and materials from her good friend, Mrs. Benton, who ran a floral shop called Benton’s Twin Cedars Floral in Puyallup. My parents were in the greenhouse business, so they had connections that most folks wouldn’t have had.
Patty made her wedding dress, and the bridesmaids all made their own dresses. The wedding party was made up of 12 of us. We have a picture, one of many taken by budding photographer, Steve Brown (again – a classmate at Auburn Academy) that I’m including here. From left to right are:
- Clinton Hubbard – candle lighter (my nephew)
- Beverly Garrett – bridesmaid (friend and classmate)
- Karen Zaugg – bridesmaid (Patty’s cousin)
- Beverly Hubbard – matron of honor (my sister)
- Lori Hubbard – flower girl (my niece)
- Patty Sue Daffern – bride
- Leland Keith Meitzler – groom
- Doyle Hubbard – Bible boy (my nephew)
- Harold Garrett – best man (my classmate and friend)
- Terry Phillips – groomsman (friend & brother of Patty’s brother-in-law)
- Steve Meitzler – groomsman (my brother and still my best friend)
- Kevin Hubbard – candle lighter (my nephew)
The service was pretty typical of any church wedding. A friend who we went to school with at Auburn Academy, Faith Humphrey, sang “Whither Thou Goest,” a song made popular by Perry Como, George Morgan, Les Paul and Mary Ford, and others. My sister-in-law, Shirley, somehow got her hands on my shoes, and wrote in white on the soles – just ahead of the heels where it wouldn’t rub off – “HI MA.” When we knelt for prayer everyone got a look at my shoes. I wondered what everyone was giggling about. Kneeling for prayer isn’t usually a laughing matter. See photo below.
After the service, we went over to the Nelson-Crane Jr. Academy gymnasium for the reception. My best man, Harold Garrett, drove us over. We did the typical reception line, cut the cake, and opened gifts. Opening the gifts seemed to take forever, as we got a lot of loot…. Before leaving the gym, Patty tossed her bride’s bouquet, with Cindy Nicholas catching it. She was just a kid, so I’m sure she didn’t marry for a while. Folks that helped out at the reception are pictured below. From left to right, they are Belva Sears, Oral Sears, Sarah Brown, Miss Ferguson (Jim Ferguson’s daughter), Ethyl Hubler, Jacki Hubler, Janine Brown, Wendy Layer, Betty Hanks, Vivian Zaugg, Lucy Torrey, Trista Nicholas, and Peggy Green.
The following photo is of the cake cutting. Patty and I still have that tiny bride & groom that was on the top (a wedding cake tradition continued from Patty’s parents, Homer & Neta Daffern). The cake was made by and decorated by Clara Miller Lively, who had been my 6th grade teacher at Nelson-Crane.
Following the reception, Patty and I walked across Shaw Road to the Garrett home where we changed clothes and where our worn-out 1957 Chevrolet was locked up in the Garrett garage. Beverly Garrett got her hands on the garage keys and I chased her out Leo Garrett’s front door in my attempt to retrieve them. The only problem was that I didn’t get the screen door opened in time and pretty-well destroyed it when I went through. Once we got the car out of the garage, we left for the Meitzler family home outside of Orting, Washington, where we packed the car with all those gifts, and said our “goodbyes.” We finally got on our way to College Place, Washington about 9 p.m., arriving at the Vet’s Apartments about 4 in the morning. The Vet’s apartments were student housing for Walla Walla College students. A few days previously, we’d loaded up my parents old International Metro (a retired milk truck), and along with our friend, Elaine Kuester, we had taken most of our “stuff” to the apartment. The apartments were very old, and not the Hilton… But we didn’t notice.
On Sunday, September 1, we will be celebrating our anniversary along with our sons and their families. In honor of this milestone anniversary, Patty and I are doing something we’ve never done before at the Family Roots Publishing Co. website. We’re offering a Labor Day Weekend/45th Anniversary sale of 20% additional off on all products on the site. To take advantage of the offer, just put the number 45 in the Offer Code box at checkout. Please remember to put “45” in the Offer Code box. Otherwise you won’t get the additional discount! This is a FamilyRootsPublishing website sale only. We’re not taking phone orders, and purchase orders are not allowed for this sale. Credit card sales only. We’re doing the sale this way as we’re letting the computer do all the work. We won’t be working! Instead, we will be celebrating! Items purchased will be shipped on Tuesday through Thursday, dependent on sales volume. The sale starts now, and runs through Midnight MDT, Monday, September 2.
To take advantage of the additional 20% off on all products (making many discounts add up to 22 to 40% off), click here. Have a great weekend! We plan to…
A hardy congratulations to both of you on the 45th anniversary. We just celebrated our 50th in May. Thanks for the great vendor booth at FGS in Ft. Wayne and helping with my big box of books I purchased. Keep up the good work.
I remember the Vets Apartments! I grew up about a block from there on Tremont Drive. I had classmates who lived in the Vets Apartments, children of married WWC students. I remember playing with some of them there ca. 1969-72, when we were in second through about fourth grades. Ah, yes, the Vets Apartments with sawdust for insulation and where you could release marbles and watch them roll from one side the room to the other! . . . Congratulations, Leland and Patty!
Congratulations, Leland and Patty!
It is a small world for sure. My first wife passed in 1976 and in 1980 I found a bride (Chris Necker Chamberlin) in the McMinnville, Oregon Church. She was friends with Keith Zaugg & wife and Terry & Kathy Phillips, so I became friends as well.
Have many more years
Roger & Chris Newman
I was invited to a Sept 1, 2013 afternoon bash at the Meitzler’s place in Bountiful, celebrating Leland and Patty’s 45th Anniversary. Leland didn’t mention that he proposed to Patty when they were 12 years old, and the two were inseparable until they graduated from high school, and married a couple of months later, both at age 18. My own parents never made it past their 47th anniversary, having been married in 1930 and my Dad died in 1977. But, my parents were married at age 25 and 24. Therefore, I give Leland and Patty a good shot at 50 years and a whole lot more. But they both have just a couple more years before they can join me in the preferred ranks of Social Security and Medicare. Now that’s an anniversary! -bill$hide
Thank you, Leland and Patty, for sharing your wedding day details and photos. WOW, knowing each other since 12 years old and STILL in love!
I met my husband while teaching for the Department of Defense in Germany. We will be married 44 years in Dec. Reading your story makes me aware that I should be writing our dating and marriage story.
May you be blessed with continued health, happiness and more anniversaries to celebrate.
Good comment, Bill. Only it wasn’t quite like that. I actually met Patty for the first time in June of 1962 in front of the “Junior” tent at the Seventh-day Adventist campmeeting held on the grounds of Auburn Academy in Auburn, Washington. Her cousin, Karen Zaugg, introduced her to me. I fell in love at first site. I don’t remember actually going into the tent to sit down, and I’m sure I didn’t get to sit next to her that night. However, I do remember telling my parents, from the back seat of the car on the way home, that I’d just met the most beautiful girl in to the world. I was smitten… Patty’s mother went to work as one of the teachers at Nelson-Crane that fall, and of course, Patty went to school there. We were both in the 7th grade. Miss Richards was our teacher. Mr. Don Watts was the principal. Patty and I did too much standing around talking during recesses that year, and we both got suspended for a few days for violating school rule number 11 – “No courting on the school grounds.” The following year Mr. Watts was our teacher, as well as principal. I guess we must have had a truce of some kind, because we didn’t get suspended again, that I can remember. You are right, in that we were nearly inseparable for most of the time from not long after when we met. However, I didn’t propose to her until March 11, 1967, during the time that we were both Juniors at Auburn Academy. Poor Don Watts. He didn’t know what to do with us. We sent him an invitation to the wedding, but he never responded. I feel very blessed… Why Patty liked a nerdy kid like me I’ve never been able to understand. And she still seems to like me… She really likes me!