McClendon Studios Presents: Papa's Proposal

Papa’s Proposal

My child-bride Suzanne and I had dated for several years when, one day, my father decided he wanted to know when we were going to get married.

I was in my final semester at the University of South Carolina and was about to graduate with a Bachelors of Media Arts degree, so I thought.  I had resumes all over the world.  I would graduate as an audio engineer.  I had been offered a job with Turner Television.  Turner was in negotiations with Australia and things looked pretty good.

Suzanne and I were sitting in the den at my parents’ house.  See my (The House That Built Me post.) My father called Suzanne into the kitchen.  He said “Su De Lou, come in here a minute.” She went and I followed.  When we got into the kitchen he said,” Su De Loo, are you going to marry David?”

Suzanne looked at him and said, “If he ever asks me.”

He said to me, “David, are you going to ask her?”   I responded, “Yes.” He said, "Now that that bull is over with, I have something to ask you.”

Papa offered Suzanne a job at the Western Auto store as a customer service person.  He told me he wanted me to manage the store.

His idea was that he wanted to work on another business and train me to take over the store.

Later that night, Suzanne and I discussed the date of the wedding that had been a foregone conclusion for years and was no real secret to anyone. 

The next time my father saw Suzanne, he took her to what was going to be our new house.  He had plans to fix it up and have it ready for when we got married.

The house was ready on time.  As it turned out, my advisor had made a mistake in calculating my credits.  I was three credit hours short of graduating.  I finished my degree years later at Anderson University, where I took my Media Arts credits and turned them into a BBA business degree.  Later, I earned my MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Along the way, we had five beautiful children (one stillborn) who are the joys of our life.  We also have two peppy grand-doggers.

What about you? Did life happen while you were making plans?

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