I saw her in the spring of my freshman year. I can still see her now.

The day was Monday, May 18, 1953. The occasion was a fraternity-sorority picnic, an evening get-together of about thirty guys from Sigma Alpha Epsilon and an equal number of girls from Kappa Alpha Theta. We were all students at North Dakota State University. The university is located in Fargo.

We were down on the banks of the Red River. The fest was well underway. We had a good fire going. Hot dogs were being cooked by the dozens and beer was flowing from kegs. Most of us were staying away from too much beer. Cokes and Pepsis were plentiful. But more than a few of my fraternity brothers were well on their way to becoming "snockered," with chug-a-lug challenges yet to come.

She was standing near the fire, surrounded by a dozen guys, all vying for attention. I was not part of the crowd. I was twenty feet away, and until it was almost time to pack up and return to the campus, I came no closer.

She was a radiant image, five feet two inches tall, less than ten pounds plus a hundred, perfectly arranged. She was wearing what I have ever since called her Woody Woodpecker jacket, a simple blue denim jacket with the cartoon character, seemingly half her size, stitched on the back. I saw shimmering brown hair, lightly peppered with strands of gold. The color in her eyes I could not see. I was blinded by the sparkle.

There was something about her, something very different. I remember thinking she was not the prettiest girl I ever saw, or even the prettiest girl at the picnic. Still, I found myself drawn to watching her. I was tempted to approach her, but I could not. The best I could do, shortly before we all went home, was walk close to her and say, "Nice night, isn't it." She smiled, "Yes, it's a beautiful evening."

She had dark brown eyes, shining of intelligence.

On the way back to the campus, I asked my brother Norman about her. Her name was Carol Roehrich. She was a sophomore. She lived in the women's dormitory.

When I got home from the picnic, I did something distinctly uncharacteristic of myself. I went to the phone and dialed the women's dormitory. Someone answered, and I asked to speak with Carol Roehrich. I waited nervously until she was on the line.

"Hello, Carol. This is Cecil Reinke. I'm one of the guys who were down at the river, one of the SAE's."

"Yes."

"Well, I was wondering --"

"Yes."

"Well, I was wondering if you would go to a movie or something with me, say next Friday night."

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"Oh well, I'm sorry, I just --

I was thinking I should get off the line, escape with dignity, when she interrupted. "Will you excuse me for a moment. Just stay on the line. I'll be right back."

Moments later, she was back. Days later, I learned that she had gone to ask if any of the girls in the dormitory knew anything about me. Among those asked were friends of my brother Norman, who suggested that I was likely a fairly decent fellow.

"Okay. Listen, I can't go because I have choir practice that night."

"I'm sorry."

"But if you like, you can meet me after."

"Fine, wonderful, I'll be there."

I was there that Friday night. I stood quietly in the rehearsal room listening to the choir sing. All I saw was she. I felt the same fascination I had during the picnic. Lucky me, I thought, looking forward to shared time with this girl.

We didn't have a lot of time. Girls were required to be in the dormitory by eleven. I took her to a little drive-in restaurant off campus, a place were they served something called a flying disk burger, a small sandwich made with two slices of bread, toasted and crimped along the edge. We talked in the car. I learned that she was born in Langdon, North Dakota, but now lived in Edgeley, where her father owned a small department store. I also learned that even though she was a sophomore and I was a freshman, she was a year younger. I liked her. I really liked her! Time up, I drove her back to the dormitory, and we said good night.

I have one story concerning our daughter Kris and flying disk burgers. Years later, while we were living in Galveston, Texas, I saw in a store a utensil that could be used to make something resembling a flying disk burger. Two steel bowls, facing each other, on long steel stems, perfectly sized to cook a hamburger patty between two slices of bread. I bought it, brought it home, and immediately made for my wife my version of a flying disk burger. I was obviously excited. Carol was amused but appreciative. Our daughter Kris, then about twelve, was curious. She asked her mother, "What's going on with Father?" Carol told her that, on our very first date, she and I had stopped for a flying disk. Kris was satisfied. "I knew it had to be something," she concluded. "Dad doesn't usually get this excited about kitchen equipment."

We had one more date the next week. Then school was out for the summer.

That summer I had a job painting Standard Oil trucks, or more accurately, as the assistant to a man hired to paint the trucks. The job paid each of us, painter and assistant, an hourly wage plus expenses for room and board. What we did was fairly simple. We washed the trucks, drove them to an open field, sprayed them with red paint, and applied decals reading "Standard Oil" on each side. Quick in, quick out, done! Well done?

This job was a real North Dakota geography lesson. We saw a significant number of the small towns in the state. One of the towns we came to was Edgeley, population 943. Edgeley, I knew very well, was where Carol Roehrich lived.

As Carol had told me, her father, Nicholas J. Roehrich, owned a department store on the main street. As an aside, Mr. Roehrich, like most German children of his age, and like my father, Christian Reinke, was at birth given only a first, no middle name. Somewhere in time, Nicholas Roehrich observed that most American men have both a first and middle name, plus of course their surname. He "remedied" the situation, assigning to himself the middle initial "J." I never heard him say what the "J" stood for, if name specific. My impression, always, was that he took an initial only. Notably, however, Carol's second oldest brother is named Nicholas James Roehrich, so likely, if the initial "J" stood for a specific name in Mr. Roehrich's mind, it stood for James.

Shortly after we arrived in Edgeley, I found a telephone and called Carol. "Will you be home this evening?" "Yes," she said. "May I come see you after work?" "Yes," she answered, inviting me to come to her home. She gave directions. Her home wasn't hard to find. As soon as my day's work was done, I cleaned up and rushed to see her.

At home with Carol were her parents, Nicholas and Grace Roehrich, and her little brother Ronnie. Her two older brothers, Bob and Jim, were away in the service, this being the time of the Korean War. Robert Dale Roehrich, her oldest brother, was in the Army, on the ground in Korea. Nicholas James Roehrich was in the Navy, on board a ship somewhere. I felt the same awkwardness as any young suitor meeting a girl's parents for the first time, although I knew they were trying to make me comfortable. I sensed a good, loving family atmosphere.

We visited for a little while. Then Carol invited me out for a drive in the family DeSoto. I remember little about the car, except that it had an automatic transmission. What I...