New Wife, New Life

Wedding day cake: August 26, 1955

(click here to read previous story:

Fort Sam Houston)

In May of 1955, Dinon was released from the army after 21 months of service.  Three months later, on August 26th, 1955, he married Liz Marshall.

After leaving the army, Dinon decided that he wanted to use his G.I. Bill benefits in order to return to school.  So, in the autumn of 1955, Dinon found himself at the University of Wisconsin once again, this time in the two-year graduate program for his master's degree in business.

The young Boyer couple decided to wait until after Dinon finished graduate school before having any kids.  While Dinon was studying, Liz was working at a nearby church as the church secretary.  Their first year of marriage was a quiet one and the biggest speed bump they ran into was Liz's tonsillectomy.

"We were newly married, and we found out that she had to have her tonsils removed.  So she said, 'Well, I'll have it done on a Friday so I can be back to work on Monday' ... but it was a week from Monday before she got back!"  Dinon laughed. "We don't heal like we're kids, it just takes more time.  It was funny, because she was SURE she was going to be able to recuperate over the weekend.  It was kind of fun to tease her a little bit about what she had said."

Young Liz and Dinon

All that year, Dinon worked hard in the two-year graduate program and, impressively, managed to earn his master's degree in a single year.

After graduating in 1956, Dinon accepted a job offer to work at Goodrich in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where for the next ten years he was the personnel manager. It was a career that constantly frustrated inquisitive Liz.

"Liz used to get upset when I wouldn't tell her what was going on in the office," Dinon said.  "I said that she might have contact with some of the other spouses of people in the office, and they might ask her a question, and the way she responds might give it away, and it was supposed to be very confidential.  The only safe thing was - just don't tell her!"

The young couple moved to Ohio at the end of 1956, and in March of 1957 Liz became pregnant with their first child - a little girl they named Diann.

(Next story: Baby Diann)

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A Pair of
Fiancees

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Houston

A Pair of Fiancées

(click here to read previous story: An Ecumenical Conference in Illinois)

Near the end of 1953, Dinon was in a predicament.

Before his graduation in the spring of 1953, Dinon had exchanged letters with a pretty girl named Liz Marshall.  He had met Liz by chance at an Ecumenical conference in Illinois, but they had only corresponded for a short time and never expected to meet again because of the +1,000 miles between The University of Wisconsin and her school in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Present-day photo of the entrance to
Washington Adventist University
(Source) 

But now, drafted into the army for the Korean War soon after his graduation, Dinon was stationed at Camp Pickett, near the town of Blackstone, Virginia.  His family and fiancée were more than a thousand miles away back home in Wisconsin Rapids ... but Liz was still going to school at Washington Missionary College (now called Washington Adventist University), which was a little north of D.C. and less than 200 miles away from Camp Pickett.

The proximity that had previously been a disadvantage suddenly became an advantage for a lonely soldier far from home.  So, in spite of his engagement to Dorothy Brown back in Wisconsin, he reached out to Liz and reconnected with her.

"Camp Pickett was close enough that you could find someone to take you into Richmond or D.C.  ... So while I was there, I went to Washington, D.C. a few times to visit Liz.  I guess I was lonely or something like that," Dinon admitted.  "I thought, well, she’s a girl, so, OK.  So I went to see her several times."

Dinon grew to like Liz more and more as he continued to date her and, regardless of his fiancée back home (whom Liz knew nothing about), he fell in love with her.  After just a few weeks, Dinon proposed to Liz ... 

... while he was still engaged to Dorothy Brown back in Wisconsin.

Quite the predicament.

Shortly after proposing to Liz, he sat down with her and confessed, "I think I'm in love with you, but I'm engaged to another girl back home.  What should I do?"

She was furious.

"Don't ask me to tell you what to do!  You've got to make up your mind!"

While retelling the story more than fifty years later, Dinon laughed.

"It was proper for her to say that," he said.

Dinon's parents, Ralph and Alma

Liz went back to school and left him to make his choice: Liz or Dorothy.

It's likely that Dinon asked his parents for advice.  If so, his mother probably advised him to choose Dorothy.

"I don’t think my mother really liked Liz," Dinon said.  "She was sure that, since Liz came from a divorced family, we would divorce at some time, too."  And back in Wisconsin there was his hometown fiancée, Dorothy Brown, a girl that his mother liked so much that she had helped Dinon pick out the engagement ring.

But for some reason, reasons that even Dinon can't quite remember, he chose Liz.

"I don’t know why I picked her," he said.  "I really don’t know.  I guess I liked her better.  Or it could've been because she was current, y'know, since I was seeing her right then."

1954: Photo of Liz with unknown child

Whatever the reason, he made his choice and he followed through: He went to Dorothy and he broke off their engagement.

"She gave me back the ring," he said.  "She could've kept it, obviously, but she gave it back."

Shortly after that, a dozen red roses arrived for Liz Marshall at the dorms in Washington Missionary College.  And everyone heard about it: she ran around the halls of the dorms, joyfully shouting, "He sent me roses!  HE SENT ME ROSES!"

However, their relationship was tested again not long after that.  Camp Pickett was being closed, and Dinon was being relocated to Fort Sam Houston more than 1,600 miles away in San Antonio, Texas.

(Next story: The Move to San Antonio)

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An Ecumenical Conference in Illinois

(click here to read previous story: Camp Pickett)

Before his graduation in the spring of 1953, during his junior or senior year, Dinon drove from The University of Wisconsin down to Illinois to attend an Ecumenical conference.

He arrived a little earlier than most, and as a result volunteer to help direct parking for the event.

One of the cars he directed in was driven by a girl, about his age, named Liz Marshall.  After he waved her toward a spot, she turned to her girlfriends in the back seat and exclaimed, "Oo, wasn't he good-looking?"

Liz had driven up from Washington Missionary College in Silver Spring, Maryland - close to Washington, D.C. - to attend the conference with other members of her church youth group ... And to pursue one of the boys in the group that was, conveniently, attending.  But Dinon caught her attention; she remembered their meeting, even though he did not.

July 1954: Liz and unknown child

After the conference, Liz and Dinon somehow ended up in the same group of people that went out for a late-night snack in the little Illinois town.  "I don't know how I was in the group, there were a number of students there and I was just one of them, and we went to this restaurant late," he said.

At some point before the group parted ways, Dinon and Liz spoke and exchanged mailing addresses, and even corresponded for a short time.

"I didn't keep up a running letter conversation with Liz," Dinon said.  "I practically forgot about her.  I didn't really write her a lot - I met her, I got her address, but she was in Washington, and I was up in Wisconsin.  There was no expectation of ever seeing each other again."

Another photo of Liz

But all that changed a year or two later when Dinon was staying in Camp Pickett, a thousand miles away from home but less than 200 miles away from D.C.

"[Camp Pickett] was close enough that you could find someone to take you into Richmond, VA or Washington, D.C.," Dinon said.  "Well, Liz was going to college just outside of Washington, D.C. in Silver Spring, Maryland."

So he recovered her mailing address and struck up a correspondence again.  After all, she was much closer than anyone else he knew, including his fiancée.  And it didn't hurt that Liz was a smart and very pretty young lady.

"While I was at Camp Pickett, I went to Washington, D.C. a few times to visit Liz," Dinon admitted.  "I guess I was lonely or something like that.  I thought, well, she's a girl, so, ok.  So I went to see her several times."  He also confirmed that when he went to visit her, "It was dating her, yes, that's right."

And as the weeks went by and he continued to date Liz - while, unbeknownst to Liz, still engaged to Dorothy Brown - Dinon began to fall in love with her.

(Next story: A Pair of Fiancees)

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The University of Wisconsin: Graduation

(click here to read previous story: Snowstorms and Cross-dressing)

In 1950, the U.S. became involved in the Korean War.  As long as Dinon was in college he had a deferment, but the moment he graduated he would be eligible for the draft.

He finished his final exam in the spring of 1953.  At that time, he was engaged to a girl named Dorothy Brown.

"I really don’t remember a lot about Dorothy, but we were engaged, and I actually proposed.  She had a ring and my mother helped pick it out, as a matter of fact," he said.

"She was from Wisconsin Rapids ... I don’t remember an awful lot about Dorothy. I don’t even remember what she looked like."

University of Wisconsin graduation in Field House
Class of 1953 - UW's 100th Commencement Ceremony
(source)

The graduation ceremony did not take place immediately after his final exam. The gap was large enough between exams and commencement (scheduled for June 19th) that Dinon took a position teaching 'camping skills' at a nearby lakeside summer camp.  He even headed out there to work for a while until the ceremony.

"I had to hitchhike to the camp, and then hitchhike back for the graduation ceremony," he said.  According to Dinon, hitchhiking used to be a common method of transportation at the time.  "But in my senior year of college, it was getting harder to hitchhike.  There were just a few [bad and publicized] incidents, but it was enough that the public was starting to get concerned about picking someone up, because there were some [hitchhikers] that would do something to the driver, rob them, or whatever.  So, people were a little more cautious, so I made sure I looked well.  I had to wait longer for my rides but I'd eventually get one."

"So, I came back and went through graduation.  At that time, Wisconsin was one of the largest universities in the country, and the graduation ceremony was in the stadium," he said. "After the ceremony, and after all the pictures were taken, I was walking back to turn in my cap and gown."

A 1955 photo of Camp Randall Stadium,
where Dinon's graduation ceremony took place
(Source)

On that walk back, he ran into his first-year roommate, Kip, the Norwegian.  Kip had just graduated as well, with honors ("He took an easy course for his degree, some kind of 'Studies'").  While catching up, Kip looked over at Dinon's bundled-up commencement robes and asked where his honor cord was.

"I said, 'What are you talking about?', and he said, 'Didn't you go up to Bascom Hall and check the list of who’s eligible to be graduating with honors?'  Turns out I was eligible ... but I didn't know it!  So here I am, I'm on the way back to turn in my cap and gown, and Kip tells me that I was on the list because he knew he was going to graduate with honors because he got good grades all along.  I had had five D’s in chemistry to overcome ... So, I found out just by accident that I’d graduated with honors, but on my transcript it does show 'honors'.  So, you send away your transcript to companies that you want to have hire you, why, they’re gonna see that.  But my parents, of course, didn't have the ability to take the nice pictures with the cord."

Even though his deferment ended with his graduation, he waited to be called.

"I think it was in August or something like that, that they caught up with me," he said.  "At that time, I was working at the camp.  They knew it was a possibility I might be drafted, but they didn't know when.  So, then I got the call from friends and neighbors, so I went back home.  I had to leave the camp, even though they weren't quite done with the season, but it was pretty well advanced, and I didn't have any choice and they knew it.  I wasn't afraid – was too dumb to be afraid, probably.  That would've been in 1953."

(Next Story: Basic Training at Fort Riley)

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Rapids

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Snowstorms and Cross-dressing

Snow at the University of Wisconsin, 1958
(Source)

(click here to read previous story:

Dorms, Food and Studies)

Dinon's transcript proves that he did well at college, showing that he graduated with honors.  But from the stories he tells, it's clear that he also had a lot of fun along the way.

"The University of Wisconsin is very hilly, and when we had a snow storm, we liked to get on the hills and make them really icy to slide down before the maintenance crew came out with the sand and the shovels," Dinon said.  "I had an early class, so I’d just get up a little earlier and we had a BALL sliding down the hills.  As more guys and gals slid down the hills, it became more icy and it was really fast!"

He also said, with a wink and a smile, that he went out on a lot of dates with a lot of girls.  When the occasion was there, some of those dates were enjoyed at the college's school dances.

"We oftentimes had different contests for king and queen of a dance or something like that, and we’d put on skits to try and attract people watching the skit to vote for them.  There were several people vying for the same honor of the king and queen," Dinon said.  "One year, they were [vying] in the place where we were eating, and one of the guys took a tray and he put a bunch of silverware on it, and then partway through the skit he emptied that tray on the terrazzo floor, and it made a racket.  A lot of people interpreted the noise that, he was going along, just watching the skit, and he wasn't watching, and then he dropped the stuff on the floor accidentally.  Everybody just laughed about that.  But it was on purpose and it had its effect, that’s all we were worried about.  So, it was fun."

But it was the antics of the Haresfoot organization that amused him the most, even as just an outside observer.

Haresfoot actors backstage: Feb 27, 1961
(Source)

"Haresfoot was an organization of men only, and annually they always put on a show over a weekend where they’d have the chorus line, like The Rockettes, y’know, and the guys would dress up as women and get wigs and so on and ... y'know ... stuff their braziers ... and they were good," he said.  "[Haresfoot] was a good organization and some of the guys were quite creative in using that for something else ... and one of the fraternities decided that they’d like to play a prank on their fraternity president."

A big dance was coming up ... and one of the guys had a buddy in Haresfoot.

The fraternity members went to the president's girlfriend for help pulling it off.  "Just before the dance, tell him you're sick," they said, "Since he's the president, he'll have to have a date, and we're going to fix him up."

The day of the dance arrived, and the president received a call from his girlfriend: she was too sick, he'd have to find someone else to go with.  Now he had to scramble to find a suitable available girl at the last minute.  "We've got a girl for you," his fraternity brothers said.  "She's in the dorms, we'll give her a call and set you up."  The president agreed, and arrangements were made for his date to meet him at the fraternity house.

"When the fraternity president came downstairs after dressing for the dance, well, here’s this girl, standing at the fireplace, kind of leaning on the mantle and really nice-looking, and, well, he was really pleased.  So they go to the dance together and, oh, he has a good time," Dinon said.

Like a gentleman, the president walked his date back to the girls' dorm after the dance.

"Now the practice at the time was to give the girls a curfew, the University thinking that if you control the girls, you control the guys ... it’s not quite true, but maybe largely so.  So, on Fridays and Saturdays the curfew was 1230 or something like that," Dinon said.  "So then it comes the time, because of the curfew, to take his date back to the dorm so she can get in.  Well, everyone kisses right at that time, right before the girls go in the door they kiss them goodnight."

So, the president - still oblivious - tells his date what a nice time he had, and leans in for a goodnight kiss ...

" - and then the date whips off his wig – so that you could see he’s a guy – then he SPLITS down and gets out of Dodge!"

A Haresfoot production: 1946
(Source)

Dinon began to laugh.

"The fraternity president - he didn't know what to do!  Because he realized he’d been HAD," he said, laughing.  "That was REALLY funny."

There were plenty of other gender-bending pranks that the Haresfoot boys loved to pull as well.

"On another day, some of the guys were swimming naked in the pool," Dinon said.  "Well, a couple of the Haresfoot guys got dressed up and walked into the pool area.  And, the other guys SPLIT, man, they couldn't get out of the pool quick enough to get away from these 'girls' walking along the pool!  And then, they walked into the shower area – I mean, it was CHAOS until they revealed that they were from Haresfoot.  It created quite a stir at the time ... but, it was funny, it really was funny."

Their fun contrasted against the events of the outside world: in June of 1950, the end of Dinon's freshman year, the Korean War began.  Each year, more young men, like those from Haresfoot, graduated from The University of Wisconsin ... and, in so doing, lost their college deferment and were drafted.  

Which is exactly what happened to Dinon in 1953.

(Next story: Graduation)

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Dorms, Food and Studies

(click here to read previous story: Wisconsin Rapids)

When Dinon arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 1949, he lived in the dorms and started out studying Chemical Engineering, just like his father.  

"I was in a dorm, and the men's dorms were at the far end of the campus.  I was in Gregory House and I was in the end room on the first floor the whole time I was there, in the same room all four years," Dinon said.  "The first year, I had a roommate named Kip Thorsen - he was from a Norwegian family - but he only was my roommate the first year, and after that he stayed in a private room in the dorm."

There was also plenty of comfortable public space for the boys to study and spend time together.

Dinon still has a pennant with
UW's Bucky Badger on it
(source)

"There was a door from my room to another room that was used as a 2-room suite for the house mother during summer school, so one year we decided we’d set up one of the rooms as a study, and the other one to sleep," Dinon said.  "On the first floor, there was a den, and we’d play cards in there usually – we didn’t have any machines for soft drinks or anything like that – but that was the place to gather.  Sometimes we had what’s known as a house meeting, because there were, I think, four floors in the house ... The window ledges were very wide, so that you could get a pile of papers or some of your books on there if you wanted to."

The young men in Gregory House lived in comfort and were well taken care of - for example, maids would tidy the boys' rooms on weekdays.

"On weekends we had to make our own beds," Dinon admitted.  "Now, for some guys, this was out of the realm of possibility, they didn't make beds, but I made mine because I was used to it."

They also never washed their own laundry - they mailed it back home for their mothers to wash.

"We had a post office right next to our dorm room, and we didn't have any washers and dryers, so every week we mailed our laundry home in a box with a strap to be washed and ironed," Dinon said.  "And then my mother would wash it and everything and then send it back.  And she oftentimes included some cookies or something like that in addition.  Everyone sent their stuff home – there was no other place to wash it."

He chuckled.  "I was very spoiled," he admitted.

Even the boys' cafeteria food was good.

"We had a chef who came to the University well-recommended, and he was the one who was in charge of the food for the dorm guys," Dinon said.  "We got used to lining up, getting a tray, and then just going through the line lickety-split, and quickly eating so you could get to class."

But that efficiency was disrupted when, during his junior year, one of the men's dorms was converted into a dorm for girls.

These might have been some of the
girls holding up the food line
(source)

"Well, it may have sounded OK, but the very first day when they were serving breakfast, the line, instead of just moving right along, was at a stand-still," Dinon said, still exasperated by the memory.  "The girls, I don’t know what they had in their mind, if they were looking at all the food and wondering if they were going to get something else, but the line hardly moved and the guys were all upset because we were used to going through, 'OK, you want it, put it on your tray, and off you go.' But, well, the girls kind of dawdled, and they dawdled the whole way along the line, and, well, it really created some chaos.  It probably took a good week or more before the girls finally realized that you weren't going to get another choice or anything – if you want it, take it, otherwise, move your tray, y'know?  So they finally got to the point where the line moved rapidly, and the guys were happy about that.  I mean, at first it was terrible, but the girls finally learned, if you want it, take it, if not, keep on going! Zip zip zip!”

While living in the dorms he attended full-time classes, pursuing a degree in chemical engineering just like his father.  However, after receiving five straight 'D' grades in chemistry classes, it seemed pretty clear that he was not destined to be a chemical engineer like Ralph.  His father permitted him to switch his studies to Business.

He did well in Business courses, eventually graduating with honors in 1953.  He not only kept up with studies, he made sure to enjoy all the social fun the campus had to offer, such as pretty girls, king and queen nominations, and ... cross-dressing fraternities?

(Next story: Snowstorms and Cross-Dressing)

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The Limburger Cheese Prank

My grandfather is not much of a prankster.

But everyone has their moments.

In his junior year of college at The University of Wisconsin, he was dating a sorority girl. She and her roommates had recently been the victims of a fraternity panty raid, and in vengeance had struck back using chunks of pungent Limburger cheese.

After the cheese served its purpose, the girls didn't want the leftovers smelling up their fridge, so the food-item was pawned off on my grandfather. "She gave it to me in a little paper bag, and I carried out to the side because, ugh, it really reeked," he said. Getting back to his empty first-floor dorm room, he quickly opened the window and set it out on the ledge, closing the window so it couldn't stink up his room.

Later that night, while studying and trying to figure out what to do with his inherited hunk of Limburger, he heard his dorm mates laughing in the den over a game of cards.

And he got an idea.

"I sneaked into their room," he said, "and turned out all their lights, and took the cheese and rubbed it on the light bulbs. And, since we used steam heat, why, I made sure the radiators weren't on and then I rubbed it on the back of the radiators."

He slipped back unseen to his room, and set the smaller piece of cheese out on the windowsill again, innocently studying and waiting for the card game to end.

"Pretty soon, one of the guys went back to his room, and when he turned on the lights...the odor was terrible," he laughed at the memory. "He really yelled for his roommate to come, and they had an awful time trying to figure out how to get rid of the smell, I mean, it really reeked."

When asked if he'd seen anything, he held up his textbooks and notes, saying he hadn't seen anything because he'd been studying.

They never did find out what happened until he told them a year later, and they laughed about it together.


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