Shannon Judith Turner (Shan)

    Shannon Turner was my first serious girl friend. I met her on April 17, 1956, when she came to Caltech with her parents to visit her brother Mike, who was my best friend in the freshman class. I met her at the Wednesday night dance class and then went out with her that Friday at Mike's insistence, although at that point I tried to get out of it. So I took her to the Fleming House InterAlley Party and somewhere during the night we wound up walking out on the baseball field, where I kissed her (or she kissed me). It was the first time I'd ever kissed anyone. I also spent some time in the back seat of the Turners' car necking with her when Mike drove her back to the motel where they were staying. Then she returned to Seattle and I wrote her faithfully for the rest of the school year.
    At the end of the school year, I went up to Seattle with him to see her. I drove up with Mike Turner and an upperclassman in the upperclassman's car. I didn't drive. I sat in the back seat, cramped in between their belongings. We drove straight through, about twenty hours. All I saw of Oregon was darkness. Shannon was babysitting when I arrived. I stayed there about 10 days.
    I wrote a letter to her every day during the summer and then flew out again in September.
    On November 18, 1957, when I called her and said, "I love you," she said, "Don't."

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workers at a movie theatre, Shannon in front