[tdr]

This, another old fanfic brought out and reedited, is a story of how Ward and June met, courted, and married; a flashback within a continuation of an earlier story, "Summer of '59." In trying to put as much of the info from the series that the dialogue tells about, this may complicate things a bit, but I am going to give it a try.

THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM-- Part 1


The Cleavers had had fun during their week at the lake—boating, fishing, swimming, picnicking, and just enjoying their time away in the mid-August sunshine. The summer was coming to a close, and school would be starting again in just a couple of weeks. But their new house on Pine Avenue was waiting for them with all their furniture and belongings safely inside. They had accomplished what seemed almost impossible in the early summer of 1959, when the problems with a boundary dispute made completing their purchase of the new house, and closing on the sale of their old house, two deeds unlikely to be completed during the summer. But “fortune must have stepped in,” as Ward put it, and they not only got their old house sold, their new house bought and everything moved in, but Ward still had the opportunity to take two weeks of vacation in August. So, as the family came to its last night at their rented lake cabin, Wally and Beaver were left alone, with many instructions from June and Ward. The boys cooked their supper, then did some walking and wading around, looking for a few interesting-looking shells to take home as souvenirs. Ward and June, during this time, had gotten dressed up and had driven to a romantic restaurant they had heard about which was 25 miles away. They were having a “belated” anniversary dinner, since they had skipped that annual celebration in late May, with so many worries on their minds. But their lakeside vacation had been a time of celebrating, so they decided to make up for not having celebrated their fifteenth on its date, May 31, 1959.

Wally and Beaver were still awake after 11 o’clock, with the television in the cabin going while playing their second game of Monopoly. They heard their parents drive up and as they approached the cabin door, thinking the boys would already be in bed, Ward said, loudly enough for them to hear, “Honey, you know I would enjoy staying out dancing for another hour or two, but the products of the love we’re celebrating still aren’t old enough to be left alone for half the night.”

June, in a more whimsical tone than the boys were used to, said, “Yes, I know that’s true, dear, but we did—“ and she stopped abruptly as Ward opened the door and they saw the boys in the main room. “Oh, my,” said June, with a little giggle.

“Hi Mom; hi Dad,” said Wally, looking a little embarrassed.

Beaver looked a bit confused. “Gee Dad, what you were saying sounded almost like that mushy talk we hear in the movies.”

Ward looked blankly at first, then he smiled. “Well boys, I suppose it would surprise you to learn that your parents once said these ‘mushy’ things, and on occasions like this, as we’re belatedly celebrating our anniversary, I suppose we still do.”

“I guess I still don’t understand why you couldn’t have your anniversary when it really was,” said Beaver. “But I hope you had a good dinner.”

“Oh we certainly did, Beaver,” replied June. “We had a five-course dinner, and then we danced, and we even had a little champagne.”

“Wow, you guys really went all-out!” said Wally. “I know Beaver’s just a little kid, but I’m grown up enough to know that even when you get old you still talk mushy and do mushy stuff sometimes.”

“Well you know, Wally” said Ward, “it really wasn’t that long ago that we weren’t that ‘old,’ and we did a lot of ‘mushy’ things that you’ll probably be doing in a few years.”

“Yeah,” said Wally. “You know, I never have really heard the whole story about how you two met and got married and everything. And heck—I’m not sleepy. Since you were probably thinking about it tonight anyway, why don’t you tell us the story?”

June and Ward eyed each other. “Well, Wally, I don’t know if we can tell the WHOLE story just in a late-night conversation,” said June. “Ward, do you think—“

“Yes, I do,” cut in the man of the family. “And yes—we can’t tell the WHOLE story,” he added, grinning at June, “at least not in the time before we drop off to sleep. But I’ll get us all some of that punch we have left, and Beaver you turn off the television, and your mother can begin the story at any time.”

June: “Well, it may come as a surprise to you boys that your father and I met each other not once, but three different times. You see, I was staying with Aunt Martha in the summer of 1937. I was 16 and I had one more year of boarding school before I was to graduate. As you know, Aunt Martha lives in Riverside, and State University is not too many miles away. State was one college I was considering for after I graduated from boarding school, so I went up there to visit the campus one day in June. I went to the library and to some of the lecture halls and the research buildings and the athletic stadium. Then as I got hungry and noticed it was past lunchtime, I thought I had just enough money to buy a sandwich and a drink in the cafeteria. Well, I got the sandwich, but I had to settle for a cup of tap water. There were a few students there taking some summer courses, but the only other person in that small room in the cafeteria had his back turned to me while he drank coffee and was studying from a book. To tell you the truth, I was a little bit afraid of when he finally got up or turned around and noticed me. After all, it was only the two of us in the entire room. But before I was finished he did get up and turn around, and he stopped as our eyes met. Of course, I looked away for a second, but I still noticed his blue eyes, his handsome build, and then his nice smile. He took up his book, and then started on his way out, but he looked back at me and smiled one more time before he went out the door. So at the time, I thought that was the first and last time I would ever see that fellow.”

“Gee, Mom, was that Dad you met in the cafeteria?” asked Wally.

Ward: “Yes, Wally, it certainly was I. I was in the cafeteria studying hard for an exam in my structural design course. That was the last course I needed to finish my degree in engineering. The fraternity house wasn’t open that summer, so I was living in a cheap boarding house and working as an errand boy to support myself while I finished up that degree. There weren’t many coeds on campus at that time, and that’s why when I suddenly noticed such a beautiful young lady, well—it was hard not to do anything that would let her know that I noticed. But I had to get to class to take that exam, so I didn’t expect to see her again after that first look.”

June: “But after I went to a couple of the girls’ dormitories to get a look, I thought I had seen all that I could see for the day, so I went back to the bus stop. The bus back to Riverside was going to be another half-hour wait, so I sat down on the bench and started reading a newspaper someone had left. After a few minutes, someone sat down on the other end of the bench, but I didn’t look up until I finished an article about Jean Harlow. So when I did look up, there was that same handsome man with blue eyes I had seen in the cafeteria. I know I must have looked startled, and your father’s first words to me were: ‘I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty of a seat on this bench. You seemed quite involved with whatever you were reading.’ I just said, ‘Oh no, that’s quite alright.’ Then he said, ‘My name is Ward Cleaver. I’m very pleased to see you again, Miss--?’ ‘Bronson,’ I said. ‘It’s June Bronson. I’m just waiting for the bus back to Riverside.’”

Ward: “So I told her I was waiting for my bus back to the other side of town near my boarding house. I wanted to ask her if she would care to go to a movie or out for a hamburger some time, but I couldn’t help noticing that she was so young, I was twenty-one at the time, and it turned out she was even younger than I thought, and she still had a year of high school left. So all I did was look like I was interested, but dumbfounded.”

June: “I was interested too, but of course, being a proper young lady, I couldn’t just speak up and say so. So just before my bus was due, I decided to mention that I was staying with my Aunt Martha Bronson and helping her, as she sometimes takes in one or two ladies as boarders in her big house, and she also does needlework. Ward didn’t look like he was paying much attention, but I was soon to find out that right after I got on my bus he wrote down Aunt Martha’s name and what I said about her big house. The next Saturday I got a phone call, but before Aunt Martha let me have the phone she insisted on knowing who the caller was. Then she told me it was someone named Ward Cleaver. But she asked him where he was calling from and how he happened to know me. I finally just grabbed the phone from Aunt Martha, although I always hated to cross her in any way. Ward told me he got the operator to look up Aunt Martha’s number, and he told me there was going to be a dance on campus the next Saturday night at the end of the session, and he wanted to meet me there. I told him I would come. But facing Aunt Martha was difficult. That was the worst week I ever had with her, and I had stayed with her almost every summer since I was 8 years old. When she got it out of me that Ward was 21, she threatened to call my parents to forbid me from going to that dance. She said, 'June dear, 16 and 21 is simply too much of an age difference. Now if it were 26 and 31, well, that might be different...' So the next Tuesday I went back to the campus and I found Ward at the cafeteria at lunch time. I explained about Aunt Martha, and he offered to come to Riverside the next night. When I told Aunt Martha he was coming she almost had a tantrum. But when Ward showed up, she was so taken by how sophistocated and mannerly he was that she allowed me to go the dance afterall. She was impressed by your father’s hobbies of collecting and researching geneologies. So after he left that night Aunt Martha said she wouldn’t call my parents, but that it was only one dance and if I did see Ward again she would have to call them.

"So when Saturday came and I took the bus to the State campus, Ward was waiting there in a suit that didn’t look very new, and he had an orchid for me. I asked him how he could afford such an expensive flower, and he just said he found a way. Well, we had a good time at the dance, even though there were only about a couple of dozen there, with it being a summer session. I didn’t hear from Ward again for 3 weeks, So naturally I thought he didn’t care to see me again. But then he finally did come calling at Aunt Martha’s house, and he told me he had decided to join the navy because jobs were hard to find once again. He hoped he would be approved for officer’s training after he went through camp. And since I was the only girl he had dated any time recently, he just wanted someone to say 'goodbye' to. I liked your father from the first time I saw him, of course, but it wasn’t as if that was an emotional goodbye; after all, we had only been to one dance together. But I told him I would keep him in my thoughts, and he said likewise, and we were sure that was the last time we would see each other.”

Ward: “And it was the last time for about 4 years.”