Lovelock Wedding

My Take

DiVoran Lites

As told by DiVoran’s mother, Dora Bowers

Dora Bedell became Mrs. Ivan Bowers on April 27, 1937. I put on the rose flowered dress because the long white one didn’t seem right for a small group wedding. Ivan’s dad had arranged for me to have a rose corsage, and the fragrance of those roses has reminded me of that day ever since.

We were married in the basement of the Baptist Church between Sunday School and church by Reverend Swabackland. Lucille and Glen stood up for us.  Two of their friends and a child were there. After the wedding, we all went to Glen and Lucille’s for chicken and noodles Sunday dinner.

The ladies of the First Baptist Church of Canon City sent us a shower by mail. We got handmade lunch cloths, pillowcases, and tea towels. Most of the shower gifts were hand hemmed, embroidered, and crocheted. Mother and Dad got us an electric iron. Ivan’s mother and dad got us silver-plate flatware.

We spent our first night in Lovelock at the better hotel on the right side of the tracks. There were slot machines all over the lobby. Ivan put a nickel in one and a jackpot of nickels poured out. But a nickel jackpot didn’t go far and we were running out of money, so after the first night, we moved to the Big Meadows Hotel across the tracks. Accommodations took the last $20 of the original $80.00 we started out with. 

Ivan was making $27.50 per week. After the Big Meadows, we rented a large, empty house, empty except for a bed and a table. Lovelock, the county seat, had a population of 2300 and drew Black Foot Indians off the reservation, and miners and ranchers came from a hundred miles away in all directions. Between Safeway and home, 13 bars and gambling parlors and 3 houses of ill repute nearly filled the main street.

We still lived on the wrong side of the tracks and Ivan had to walk past about half those places with his weekly paycheck to get home. One Saturday night, he lost the week’s wages gambling. After that, I met him and walked home with him. I imagine that was when he first felt truly married. 

I remember though, that I always felt safe with him. He kept a butcher knife by the bed to protect us from the many railroad bums who jumped off the boxcars of the Reno-Salt Lake City train and roamed Lovelock looking for handouts before they got back into the boxcars.