Hollywood-Style Proposal Leads to Exclusive Engagement

Emma Christine Dryden, a 24-year-old graphic design student, did not want to see “The Firm.”

Tom Cruise or no Tom Cruise, there were other movies that she wanted to catch before that one.

But her boyfriend--25-year-old Mark Snyder, a fellow student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduate of Burbank High School--absolutely insisted.

She gave in as gracefully as possible and off they went to see the film.

Once inside the AMC Burbank 14, she really thought he had lost it.

Feeling a sneeze attack coming on, she excused herself to go to get a tissue. Snyder said she shouldn’t do it, that the movie was about to start.

While she was still looking at him to see if he had all his mental faculties in spite of his behavior, he started frantically telling her to look up at the screen.

One quick glance up and Dryden’s mouth fell open.

Up on the screen was Snyder’s personally designed partnership proposal that read: “Christine, will you marry me?”

She gasped and started to cry.

Then--thanks to Snyder and Brian Gilles, a manager at the Burbank theater and a high school buddy of Snyder--these events unfolded:

The house lights went up.

The engagement ring came out of the box Snyder had in his pocket.

The ring went onto the left hand third finger of one Emma Christine Dryden who was now laughing and crying.

An usher came down the aisle with a bouquet of roses for her.

People in the audience cheered.

The newly affianced couple didn’t stay to see “The Firm.” They went to the Butcher’s Arms Pub where his parents, Carolyn and Roger Snyder of Burbank, and others were waiting to toast the couple.

The couple’s plans, just days after their engagement, are not final, but go something like this:

In April, when he graduates from school, there will be a small wedding and big party.

She graduates about a year and a half later, and they will probably start a design shop together. He is already running a studio from his home.

Between now and the wedding, the bride-to-be has time to ponder all the sage advice she’s getting, including that advanced by the woman sitting behind her in the theater when she got her ring.

Said the older woman, once she got over the shock of such high romantic doings in her neighborhood theater: “Now that you have that lovely ring, dear, you’ll have to start having your fingernails done.”

Demolition Party for Tree Huggers

Last Tuesday a small group of men went to George Washington Elementary School in Burbank and started ripping up the playground, resulting in a naked 60x120-foot patch of dirt where blacktop used to be.

The main instigators of this deed were Ed, Fred, Ted, Kenneth and Charles Dickens of the Ed Dickens Demolition Co. in Los Angeles, cheered on by Bill Collins and others from a small revolutionary group with headquarters in North Hollywood called ACT.

ACT stands for Alliance for Children’s Trust Foundation and what was going on at the former playground was what ACT hopes will be the forerunner of a nationwide program to replace blacktop with gardens and trees.

With the approval and blessing of school principal Joan Baca, students at this elementary school will pair off and each team will be in charge of one of the 200 trees that will be planted when the youngsters return from their summer break.

The 200 sycamore and malluluca trees are just the first part of the plan for the school, which includes building a rain-forest garden, a solar power learning center, a weather station, recycling center and gardens for herbs and vegetables.

“We hope this is the start of something big,” Collins says.

ACT is pretty much a two-man operation started by advertising man Collins and friend Greg Blackwell, an environmentalist.

“The idea for this program evolved from the interests Greg and I have in children and the environment,” says Collins. “We donate our time to the effort, and all the trees, other materials and labor are given free.”

Collins said people seem eager to help when they hear about the program. He gives the Dickens family as an example.

“Ed, Charles and Fred are three of 15 children born to sharecroppers in Louisiana who moved to Los Angeles and started the demolition business in South Central L. A.

“When they heard about our program they donated the time, effort and equipment, and brought along Ed’s two sons to help with the work. It was a job that took all day.”

Collins says with the support of Sebastian International, a Woodland Hills hair care products company, ACT hopes to expand the environmental science park program throughout the United States.

Giving Credit to Job Skills Learned at Home

Phyllis Younkin of Woodland Hills was newly divorced and had no work experience or training.

She’d spent most of her adult life being a wife, and mother to three kids.

Faced with having to get a job to support herself, she didn’t know what she could possibly apply for.

Things looked pretty grim.

Not an uncommon problem for many women in this situation. However Ron Lancaster, proprietor of the Storyteller Bookstore and Cafe in Canoga Park, was quick to put her to work.

“I hired her as my food manager precisely because she had plenty of experience around a kitchen--her own--and plenty of experience dealing with challenging situations, namely her family,” Lancaster says.

He adds that her job skills are sufficient to do a “beautiful job of running the whole operation in the kitchen and dining room.”

The bonus is that “Phyllis is constantly thinking of ways to save money and give the customers better and faster service, and she is a joy to have around because she tries so hard.”

“It’s important for women to have confidence in themselves and their abilities,” says Younkin, adding that being “just a housewife,” is excellent training for a variety of jobs.

Overheard:

“The so-called hard news on “Entertainment Tonight” is so light, the writers are issued gravity boots when they come to work.”

Disgusted husband to wife in Chatsworth home