Huckleberries: ‘American Graffiti’ cruisin’ on Sherman launched magic night
Huckleberries Thursday:
On April 5, Janna Rankin Scharf and hubby, Rick, returned to Fernan Lake to take photos and recall the magical night they met 45 years ago.
She was barely 16 and a Coeur d’Alene High sophomore when she saw “a cute Canadian boy” and his friend cruisin’ Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene. It was spring break 1972. Janna was hangin’ with girlfriends, back in the day when “American Graffiti” cruisin’ was cool and safe.
Janna and a Dari-Delite co-worker, named Darla, hopped in the car with the flirting Canadians. Later, they drove to Fernan Lake to show the boys where they could camp. Janna and Rick talked for hours AND, Facebooks Janna coyly, “may or may not have locked lips a few times.”
When Janna returned home, she told her mother, Alice, that she was going to marry Rick some day. And she did, on June 15, 1974, a week after graduating from Coeur d’Alene High. “Looking back,” Janna tells Huckleberries, “that seems crazy to me. But at the time it seemed normal.”
Almost 43 years of marriage later, it doesn’t seem crazy. Full column here. (Facebook Photo: Rick and Janna Scharf)
