Friday, January 16, 2009
Thirty and Three
Boys are so stupid. They show off and do crazy things to get girls' attention but then when a girl likes them, they just don't get it. Or they get it and they have no idea what to do about it. He was the nicest of the smart boys at school and he wasn't all ga ga over sports like most of them were and he hunted, which was a way to tell he liked to be outdoors in nature like I did. My passion was photography and the school camera club was defunk so I thought I might get close to him by asking him to teach me to develop film and print pictures. He and his brothers had a darkroom in their basement and the opportunities of that seem obvious. But he made excuses and pretty soon another one of the smart boys got me access to a different darkroom and asked me to one of those school dances. Still, I was most interested in the one with dark wavy hair and blue eyes whose edges crinkled when he smiled. I tracked his comings and going over the summer by his cool car that he had rebuilt himself from parts of two. Another school year came and it was clear into January by the time he finally got it and a date was planned. By then the hot car was back in the garage being re-rebuilt so we drove his Daddy's pickup on most of our dates and somehow a bullet got shot through the floor of the thing while we sat in my driveway after a date, but that wasn't on that first date that happened thirty-three years ago today. We dated the rest of Senior year and through college and married that June and worked on house projects and raised two amazing sons and had nature and other adventures and shared joys and sorrows and still like each other! And yes, I know only girls keep track of these silly anniversaries of dates, but he remembered too this morning, so that has to be worth something! Happy Anniversary, Nature Boy, and if your comments are too racy, I just won't approve them!
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6 comments:
I'm proud of you.
33 seems like yesterday and can seem like eternity.
It gets easier from here on out.
One or both of us have faded memories. I had been anticipating this day for several weeks now (like every year, it comes just 9 days after JB day). Not sure why the date sticks in my head but it does. It's always been special.
Our first "date" wasn't in my car or my dad's pickup. It was in your car. That awesomely fast green racing machine with the 340 engine and black racing stripe. We went to Whapeton to visit NDSSS (now called something else)where I would ultimately apply, be accepted, enroll and almost attend. I still remember the full length green coat you wore that day and the pheasant feather pin on your lapel. I remember your smile and the feeling of being captivated by you (that's not so much a memory as a condition that lives on today). I remember trying to pay you for gas and it being refused but hidden in your school locker (and returned) several times over the coming weeks (I don't remember who "won" that one).
I remember bits and pieces of our wonderful lives together since then. My dark wavy hair is either gray or has "waved good-bye". The wrinles around my eyes have spread to much of my face. The car's gone (sold to buy a video camera when our first son was born - it's gone too). But mostly I imagine the rest of our wonderful lives together. Three and thirty is a long time (yet to come).
You hopeless romantics!!!
Congratulations.... I think. 33 is a good number! You are a better person than me. Then again that is a rather large community.
"And yes, I know only girls keep track of these silly anniversaries of dates" - You are right on. My wife still has the shirt I was wearing when I first asked her out. We celebrate 40 years of wedded mostly bliss this March...
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