Our Stories

Steve:  I returned from Tech School at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, just 48 hours before our wedding. Our rehearsal dinner was held in the banquet room at Fortner’s Bowling Alley, formerly located at the east end of the Plaza Shopping Center.

Lynn:  The day we married the temperature was in the high 80’s, with high humidity as well.  The church wasn’t air conditioned, and I had a history of fainting when overheated.  Thanks to strategically-placed fans, I didn’t faint…

Steve:  She didn’t faint until we had just finished greeting guests in the reception line.  I struggled to carry her into the Church office because her organza and taffeta gown kept slipping in my arms.  We were lucky she didn’t just slip right out of the whole dress.

Steve:  Lynn recovered!  After the reception, she changed from her wedding dress and then we hopped into our red VW and headed to a nearby hotel for our wedding night.  We attended Church at St. Jacob the next morning, visited with family, then headed to Houston Woods Lodge for our honeymoon.  Woo-Hoo!!!

Lynn:  I graduated from Miamisburg High School in June 1967, at age 17.

Steve:  I had graduated the previous year, and was in Wilmington College, working hard at football and studies.    But the war in Vietnam loomed.  When I received a ‘C’ in Calculus, I received my draft notice in short order.   The Air Force gave me an option to enlist which I took, but my career assignment after basic training to munitions maintenance meant that I did not escape a tour in Vietnam.

Lynn:  We were determined to marry, but we had to do LOTS of talking with our concerned parents.  We were engaged in August of 1967, two months after my graduation.

Steve:  Actually, The day I officially asked Lynn to marry me, I got into a pick-up baseball game at Mark Twain School playground with some friends, which made me late for our engagement date.  I don’t think Lynn ever knew that.   Facing Lynn’s father, my pastor, sitting behind his home office desk and asking him for his daughter’s hand was one of the most intimidating things I ever had to do.

Lynn:  We began making wedding plans.  I asked my Pastor/Dad to walk me down the aisle before performing the wedding service.  He didn’t see it as a possibility, since he would be officiating the service.  I told him, “It isn’t my fault that you are both my father and my pastor!”

Steve:  A plan was subsequently hatched whereby Lynn’s father would be dressed in his robe and surplus, walk her down the aisle, then be handed his stole by my father.

Steve:  While dating in high school, we were repeatedly scolded by the regular lunchroom monitor for entering the cafeteria holding hands.  Similarly, chaperones at school dances warned us not to hold one another so closely!  In addition to other school dances, we went together to three Miamisburg High School Junior/Senior proms.

Lynn:  My father once flashed the outdoor driveway light after Steve brought me home from a date. I hadn’t gone inside right away.  After a second flashing of lights–and still no me, Dad came out, pounded on the window, and in I went! (I may have been in the ‘Crying Room’ at Luther House the next day!)

Lynn:  After we started dating, I was thrilled when invited to accompany Steve and his family on a fishing excursion at Grand Lake St. Mary’s.  It was a fun time with a fun family!

Lynn and Steve:  We both enjoyed dates at Southland 75 and Miami Cruise-in outdoor movie theaters (also known as passion pits), Frisch’s Big Boy was a great date spot, too. But we especially loved spending time at the church’s former parsonage with our Luther League friends, leader Dick Church and assistants/parent chaperones.  The structure was dubbed ‘Luther House’ and was open on most Thursday nights and weekends during the school year.

Lynn:  My family and I had lived there for our first five-plus years in Miamisburg.  After it became Luther House, I found it a bit strange that my former bedroom was transformed into a chapel!  Another bedroom (my parents’) was dubbed ‘The Crying Room’, because one teenager or another intermittently had something to be sad about.  I could usually be found there whenever Steve was otherwise occupied!  Annual Luther League retreats at Lakeside, Ohio were outstanding!!

Steve:  Lakeside retreats also included the ‘submarine races’ that I introduced to Lynn.  She also met Mary ‘Queen of Lakeside’ who, at one time, was an interest of mine from a previous Lakeside family trip.  When she saw Lynn and I together at the miniature golf course she observed that Lynn ‘was really cute’.

Lynn:  Our first date was at Parkmoor Drive-in restaurant with my good friend, Betti-jane Sipe, and her date.  This followed the last Miamisburg High School football game of the 1964-65 season.  I was 14 years old.

Steve:  Our first date was delayed because the week before was the homecoming dance and I had already invited someone other than Lynn.  I was not the best of company on our first date since we had lost that football game in a close contest and I was pretty down.  But thank goodness she felt bad for me and my teammates, didn’t hold my sour disposition against me and gave me a second chance

Lynn:  We first met at St. Jacob Lutheran Church in Miamisburg, where my father, Rev. Oliver A. Rajala, was called to serve as Pastor.

Steve:  I shared my first romantic kiss with Lynn’s sister, Joan.  It must have been something because I married Joan’s sister and she found another Steve to marry!

Thank you for coming to our website and hopefully we will see you at the big party! We are grateful for an opportunity to celebrate with family and friends on July 14, 2018. Please check this website for more information about the event and read stories from our 50 years.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Steve and Lynn