Once upon a time in the year nineteen hundred seventy three, a guy named Larry from Lompoc met a gal named Linda from Tustin. They were both teachers and met at LAX….nine weeks later they ran into each other in Amsterdam and went sightseeing, out to dinner, and took in a movie. A few weeks after returning home, Larry called and invited Linda to Lompoc to attend a high school football game and visit his church. She stayed with his friends, Donna and Gary Ingraham. She met many friendly Lompocians including the Huie family at church!!
A year later, Larry and Linda were married and living on 3rd street in Lompoc. It was so much fun having couples over for dinner….. we’re pretty sure the Huies were at Larry’s surprise 30th birthday party at our new house in Vandenberg Village. Linda had sent out invitations a few weeks earlier assured that the house would be finished and they would be moved in by Larry’s birthday. Naïve!!! After many calls, Linda got the electricity turned on 30 minutes before guests arrived. We picnicked on the carpet and sat on packed boxes eating on a six foot sub sandwich.
We remember Nel’s crash while attempting to keep...(was it a coffee pot or crock pot) something from tipping over in her car…….we remember your friendship …..you being there to congratulate us on the births of our two oldest children….helping with the Joy Bus….later your daughters, Dianne and Sherri babysitting for us the first time we went out without our babies.
FAST FORWARD many years…there’s Bill and Nel visiting at Visalia Community Church of Christ…Excellent…Larry and Linda immediately insisted on showing them around Visalia emphasizing how much cheaper real estate was in the valley compared to houses in Santa Barbara County.
We are so thankful you decided to move to Visalia….it has been terrific knowing you as a young elder and his even younger wife, as the parents of terrific kids, as fellow Christians, and as friends.
50 years of marriage is remarkable…you are great role models as Christian parents and grandparents. We send our warmest wishes for many more years of happiness.
Happy Anniversary with love from, Linda Rowe
