the honeymoon years
Sometime in 1935, when Papa was around the age of 21 and Nana around the age of 17,
they met each other for the first time at one of the many country dances which would
typically be held at someone's house, with a guitar & fiddle providing the entertainment.
The fact that this was their first meeting says a lot about the seclusion of life at the time; although both families lived in Kim during the same period (and Kim was likely no larger than 750 people), the fact that Papa was a little older, lived on a ranch outside of town, and had quit school and later gone to Kansas for a year all contributed to him not having yet had the pleasure of meeting Flossy.
The times then were much too tough for this story to be written in romantic terms;
while their 66 years of marriage (as of Dec 2002) is a testament to their love for
each other, it seems that back in 1935 pragmatism was the religion of the day, and
something like "love" often took a back seat to more realistic goals like companionship
and getting by. Papa doesn't even necessarily recall where he proposed...he thinks
it was in a pickup truck after they had been dating about 6 months, but he's not certain.
He does recall that he (later) bought Nana an engagement ring, and then promptly left for
Pritchett, where he worked for about 3 months clearing a bed for the railroad tracks.
Upon returning to Kim, the two intended to marry.
After about a year courtship Nana and Papa were married
in Ratan, New Mexico on 9/9/1936. The choice of Ratan, common in those days, was
due to a desire to avoid the mandatory 3 day waiting period which existed in Colorado
at the time. While they did not tell anyone that they were to be married, they don't
consider it to have eloped. For $2 a marriage license was purchased, the two were
married, and upon their return the newest Johnson family moved into a small room behind
the "Little Jim" Restaurant in Kim.
Making a living in Kim at that time was very difficult.
Nana and Papa decided to move to Canon City, Colorado, expecting to find work on the
Highway Projects that were partially underway then. For similar reasons, Nana's
family (both her parents and sister Fairy) also followed them to Canon City, to look
for better opportunities.
At the time the
Work(s) Progress Administration (WPA) was in its infancy; created by President
Roosevelt on 5/6/1935 as a reaction to the Great Depression, its intent was to provide
relief work for unemployed persons through public work projects (the WPA was later abolished
on 12/4/1942). Papa eventually found work with the WPA, helping to build and extend
Highway 50 across portions of southern Colorado.
In order to become eligible for the WPA (which was also funded locally) Papa had to
live in Fremont County for six months, after which time he could then work on the roads.
It was during these 6 months that Papa worked as a gardener in Canon City, along with
his Father-in-Law, for .10 cents per hour. While there was certainly reasons for
optimism, these times were still some of the toughest to be endured.
The WPA paid a maximum of $44 per month ($1 per hour) to work; with only 44 hours to
work each month, the remaining time was spent either looking for odd jobs or simply
trying to conserve their money. Work would typically be short term; a
fixed amount of road would be planned for and then built, after which time everyone
would be let go and other work (either with or without the WPA) would be pursued.
Papa worked on different sections of the Highway during this time frame, driving the
large trucks that would take the rocks and debris that was being cleared out to level
and make way for the new Highway.
After one particular WPA job had ended, Papa went alone to Idaho Springs, Colorado, off of
Highway 70 west of Denver, where there was other work available. Nana came soon after;
she continued as a waitress in Idaho Springs, which is what she had been doing in Canon City.
Once work ended in Idaho Springs, Papa went with a friend to Ratan pass, to look for more work on the roads. However, the project there was already near completion, and upon their return Papa and his friend decided to take their wives on a trip to California. Nana and Papa went back to Canon City for a short visit, maybe 2 weeks. This was in 1938, and the two had not yet been married for 2 years. Nana had a cousin Ruth and her husband Toby who were living in Vallejo CA, and so Vallejo was the destination. They drove to California in their 1936 sky blue Chevy Pickup with the other couple, using plywood walls around the bed of the truck to provide some protected space for whichever couple was in back. The trip to California was intended to only be a short visit, but ended up lasting a lifetime.
