It was 1939 and America was still affected by the great depression. Many families were still suffering, and unemployment rates were near 15%. My great grandfather George Larson struggled to find work. To provide for his family he would look for dropped coal on the railroad tracks for the night’s warmth and coming up with the next meal was a daily challenge. My grandmother Verna Mae Larson and her younger sister Audrey were students at Park High School in St Paul Park, Minnesota, as was my grandfather Vernon Oase, and his was where the greatest love story ever told began.
Living on a farm just a few miles from Park High School the Oase family, while still poor, did not feel the affects of the depression as much as the Larson family did. The Oase’s had an extensive garden that provided them with fresh vegetables all summer long and canned around 500 quarts for the winters supply. They had a stock pile of potatoes, carrots, and apples that were kept in the cellar. Along with having a cow, sheep, chicken, and turkey the seven Oase boys were also hunter and fisherman. While the Oase family had a large bunch to feed they also had access to food that many families like the Larson’s did not.
Gram and Gramps began dating their senior year of high school. He knew that her family was struggling to eat but gramps also knew that the Larson’s were proud people who didn’t want to be seen as needy or asking for handouts. So, Gramps was gentle in his approach. He would bring his lunch to school and then after eating half his sandwich would tell gram that he was full, and would she eat the other half so that it wouldn’t go to waste. Or how he would have some “extra” firewood or a turkey in the back of his truck and just happened to drive by the Larson house and could they take it off his hands. While gramps was doing what came natural to him the Larson family was always grateful for his generosity.
Gram and Gramps continued to date after high school however with the start of WWII there was work to be found in the bay area of California. George Larson packed up his family and headed west. Gramps said that he would come for her, but time passed, and the letters came less frequently.
Gram began to date another man who was then called to the south pacific and he asked her to please wait for him. She agreed thinking that Vernon Oase had long forgotten her. However, in September of 1942 Vernon and his pal Charles, who had been dating Gram’s sister Audrey, decided to make their way across the U.S. to find their girls. Charles fixed up his car, and along with two other guys to help pay expenses, the four young men took to the open road.
In the early 1940’s there were no stretches of highway nor long paved roads to get across the country. It was a miss mash of paved and dirt roads that wove from town to town. The tires on the car had tubes like bicycle tires of today. The journey was long and arduous with eight flat tires and some other repairs needed along the way. They finally reached California’s San Francisco Bay Area in October and Vernon and Charles went straight to the Larson house.
Having bequeathed her heart to another man gram could not believe that Gramps had come all this way for her and that he wanted to marry her. She forever felt guilty writing the dear John letter to the man at sea but had to follow her heart and said yes to Vernon Oase.
Vern and Verna Oase remained married for 62 years. Sure, there were up’s and downs but they persevered. With his work they moved often and each of their five children spent their high school years in different cities. Later Gramps job would take him and Gram around the world from Toledo, Ohio where he constructed the roof of the Pontiac Silver Dome, to the arctic circle, Egypt, British Columbia, and the Haj Terminal in Saudi Arabia. Together they traveled the world and then, after retirement, the U.S. in their trailer which they considered the most fun travel of all. Every time they would see another place or return from another excursion gramps would turn to gram and say, “Can you imagine two young kids from Minnesota would be lucky enough to see all that we have seen?”
Yes, Gram and Gramps were grateful for their life experiences, their family, their companionship. The travel came to an end when Gramps was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration and his eyesight became a tunnel of gray. They settled into a small town where he could navigate the streets with his cane and the towns people knew his name. Gram stood by his side as he went to school for the blind and participated in blind golfing tournaments. They were active at church and at the senior center. And at the end of each day gramps would say “Verna Mae have a seat, let me play a concert for you.” And every night, until the end, he would complete that concert with his version of “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.”