Minnehaha faculty reminisce about how their relationships began

Katherine Myers (English): “We were really good friends. We did everything together. Then my best friend Sue told me one day: ‘I think you really like him.’ That night on the phone, I said, ‘Sue says we like each other. What do you think?’ And from then on we were dating! And not long after, we were married.”

Nathan Johnson (Social studies): “My wife and I got to know each other on the basketball court in college….It was a co-ed team, and the rule was that men couldn’t enter the lanes on the basketball court.  This meant that you needed women on your team who could play, but a lot of guys still ignored the women on their teams.  I, on the other hand, would actually pass to the women on my team, including Kristi. She noticed. Guys out there, make sure to make women feel that they’re not just your cheerleaders.”

David Hoffner (Social studies): “We went to the same college and my friend Donnie told me ‘Oh! You’ve got to meet Sarah!’ and her friend Connie told her ‘Oh! You’ve got to meet David! So we went on a group date, in Donnie’s truck, to the arboretum.”

Richard Enderton (Mathematics): “I was one of those few who fall victim to the church youth trip in college…This young woman in Denmark caught my eye and I made every excuse to talk to her and to stay in contact after the trip. It snowballed quickly; we met in the summer of ‘72 and got married around Christmas of ‘73. Being that my wife is from Denmark, they have a tradition of doing a ‘roast’ of sorts at celebrations. So at my wedding, I didn’t speak any Danish and people would get up, say something, everyone would look at me and laugh and it just went on like that. I eventually got my revenge at other family celebrations later.”

Julie Johnson (Business, Psychology): “I went to study abroad in Germany during the spring semester of my junior year and before I left, Matt and I decided… not [to] try to do the long distance thing while I was gone, but we remained friends…Matt had already bought a ticket to come and visit me in Germany at the end of my semester there, and we were going to travel to visit his family in Sweden and my family in Norway….and when we went to see my family in Norway…my Norwegian cousin told me that he was taking us to the local church to meet some of my other relatives. When we got there, the little church was packed with relatives that I had never met and they had planned a party to meet us in our honor.  There was food set out with what looked to me like a wedding cake.  When I asked my cousin what was going on, he looked really embarrassed and said, ‘I think everyone thinks you two are getting married! They are throwing you an engagement party!’ I said, ‘What?  We aren’t even dating anymore!’  I was pretty embarrassed, my cousin felt really bad about the misunderstanding on the Norwegians part, but I think my future husband-to-be kind of liked the whole spectacle!”