SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2022
COUPLE
Continued from Page A1
clarifi ed.
But his fi rst conversation
with her didn’t quite go as
he’d hoped.
“We met in 1946 the fi rst
time, and I asked her where
she got the sweater with the
bumps on it and she kicked
me on the shins,” he said.
“That was a com-
ment about my fi gure, so
he deserved the kick in the
shins,” she said. “We didn’t
have any further conversa-
tion for about another year
and a half.”
But eventually — with a
little help from a friend —
they became a couple. Bob
didn’t drive so he got a ride
from a neighbor who was a
friend and fellow student to
school from his home more
than 4 miles out of town.
“My friend had a crush
on Shirley’s best friend and
he wanted to ask her best
friend out, but he was pretty
sure that he wouldn’t get
anywhere if Shirley wasn’t
included, too, so he asked me
if I would ask her out and I
did,” Bob said. “I was sur-
prised because she was one
of the ‘in’ people and I was
on the outside looking in all
the time.”
The minute she said that
she would go was the point
where Bob said he fell in love
with Shirley.
Shirley didn’t exactly
agree, but did go out with
Bob.
“There was no way I
would’ve asked her out if it
hadn’t been for him,” Bob
said of his friend.
The date was in early
spring 1948 after practice for
the junior class play. Bob’s
friend had a Jeep and the
date consisted of riding the
icy roads where, as Bob tells
it, “My friend would put on
the brakes at the intersection,
he’d turn his wheel and we’d
go spinning around. … So,
she went — I think her girl-
friend went once — but basi-
cally, we’ve been together
ever since, and that was the
nearly 74 years ago.”
Some of their early
romantic encounters were
quite tame compared to what
today’s culture envisions.
“We sat on her grand-
parents’ porch in the sum-
mertime and I would mas-
sage her feet and we would
ponder the future,” Bob said.
“I would visit with her in the
evening after school, after
ball practice or whatever we
were doing. … We would
be inside and her granddad
would come out about mid-
night and say, ‘Well, this boy
needs his sleep. It’s time to
go home.’ My neighbor was
working at the mill and if I
timed it right, I could get a
ride with him home. Lots of
times I didn’t time it right
and I’d end up walking home
4-1/2 miles. Sometimes in
the summertime I rode my
bicycle. Then, after I got a
car, we rode around in style.
It was a Model A Ford.”
Married young
When they got around to
getting married, he was just
18 and she was a few months
older at 19. Her grandparents,
with whom she lived since
her sophomore year in high
school, had a typical reaction.
Her grandmother was Hattie
Fisher, who taught in Wal-
lowa for about 40 years.
“They thought we were
too young, which we prob-
ably were,” Shirley said.
Bob’s parents were
enthusiastic.
“They loved her. My
mother told me, ‘I expect you
guys will have some trouble.
If you do, Shirley’s always
FROM PAGE ONE
THE OBSERVER — A5
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Bob and Shirley Crawford, who graduated from Wallowa High School
together and have been married since Jan. 25, 1951, putter around in
the kitchen of their Alder Slope home on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022.
welcome here; you’re not.’
That was kind of funny,” he
said. “As I recall, to get mar-
ried, I had to be 21 and she
had to be 18 without parental
permission. I wasn’t 21 and
I was petrifi ed. I went to my
dad and he didn’t have any
problem, but he said I needed
to ask my mother. I fi nally
got up the nerve enough
to ask her and I swear she
could’ve done a backfl ip
because she was so happy to
turn me over to somebody
else.”
After marrying at a
church in La Grande, they
both continued in the jobs
they’d gotten. He was
working for a neighbor’s
ranch.
“Just before I graduated
high school, the neighbor lost
his hired man so after I grad-
uated, my dad came to me
and said, ‘Bob, you’ve grad-
uated. It looks like you have
two options. You can leave
home or you can leave home
and get a job.’ So I went over
and applied that day to be the
neighbor’s hired man and he
hired me and I went to work
the next day,” he said.
Shirley attended a year
of college at what is now
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity and went to work for the
Wallowa Record newspaper
doing some deep investiga-
tive reporting.
“I was the one who went
around town and asked who’d
been to La Grande shop-
ping and that sort of thing,”
she said. “You know, really
exciting stuff . I also did the
sports things, but the coaches
helped a lot with that.”
Careers in education
The Crawfords left Wal-
lowa in 1954 and worked at
various jobs, but mostly as
educators, both as teachers
and Bob as an administrator.
After Wallowa, they lived
and held various jobs in Pilot
Rock, Walla Walla and Tekoa,
Washington, Lewiston, Idaho,
Adel and Lakeview before
retiring to Enterprise.
During those years,
they had three sons and a
daughter who have produced
11 grandchildren and nine
great-grandchildren. It was
while they lived in Lew-
iston that they decided to go
back to school and got their
teaching credentials before
returning to Oregon.
One of their most unique
situations as educators was
their fi rst teaching jobs at
the tiny town of Adel, east of
Lakeview, where they were
the entire faculty for seven
years in a community they
loved. The folks around the
small town found it inter-
esting that the school’s two
teachers were married.
“They accused us of
having our faculty meetings
in bed every night,” Bob said
with a laugh.
“They were just joking,”
Shirley said. “It was a great
community to live in.”
The small school had just
22 kids when they moved
there and the student body
had increased to 50 by the
time they left. They kept in
touch with the folks there,
even attending funerals for
many of the parents and
some students over the years.
Their last teaching posi-
tions were in Vale, where
Shirley retired from Willow-
creek School in 1993 and
Bob retired from the high
school in 1996.
Retiring to Enterprise
They bought the land
where their current home on
Alder Slope is in 1979.
They’ve lived in their
comfortable home on their 25
acres on the slope since 1996.
As for the coming Valen-
tine’s Day, they’ll probably
take it easy. It’s likely it’ll
be much like the fi rst Val-
entine’s Day of their mar-
ried life, which wasn’t very
memorable.
“He was probably feeding
and milking cows,” Shirley
recalled.
“It pretty much took all
day,” Bob agreed.
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Continued from Page A5
Eastern and Southern
Oregon,” he said.
McCarter said a survey
showed that 81% of Ore-
gonians think the state
should look at the discon-
tent of people in Eastern and
Southern Oregon. He also
said another survey indicates
that 68% of Oregonians
believe the state should look
into the impact that making
Eastern and Southern
Oregon part of Idaho would
have and how this proposed
transition could be con-
ducted smoothly.
Grant Darrow, of Cove,
like McCarter, encouraged
the Union County Board of
Commissioners to do more
to bring attention to the
issue.
“Even though you may
not agree with it on a per-
sonal level, your citizens
have voted in a positive way
to get something going,”
said Darrow, a leader of
Move On, an organization
that is also pushing for the
border change.
The Cove resident said
conducting meetings three
times a year is not enough.
“To just meet the min-
imum requirement is unac-
ceptable,” he said. “The
people of Union County
voted for dialogue. You are
the local representatives for
this issue. If you don’t do
something, it will not go
anywhere.”
Members of the board
of commissioners said they
have taken steps related to
the Greater Idaho matter.
Paul Anderes said he has
called Idaho Gov. Brad
Little about the issue but
has not heard back from
him. Donna Beverage said
commissioners regularly
talk with State Rep. Bobbi
Levy, R-Echo, and Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, and that
the Greater Idaho option
often comes up.
Union County Commis-
sioner Matt Scarfo said he
does not sense a ground-
swell of support for Greater
Idaho in Union County. He
noted that very few people
were listening or watching
the Feb. 9 meeting, which
people could not attend
in person due to the
COVID-19 pandemic,
but he said he encourages
anyone who wants to talk
about it to reach out.
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