Memory Monday-How We Met

1976 THEN

NOW

After way too much thinking and debating about how often I should update and what I should be blogging about. I have decided on. . . . . . . . Once a week!

My original thought when I started blogging was a way to let the grandchildren know what kind of family they come from. I wanted to tell them stories of my relationships with not only them but the world in general. I don't remember enough about my grandmother even though she lived with us from the time I was 10. I only remember snippets of my dad's mom, Nanny, and nothing of my grandfathers. I wish my parents were still here, there are questions I would like to ask them, sooooo. . . I will try to touch on things that my kids and grandkids might like to know about me past & present. That being said I will alternate between Memory Monday(past) and Not Me Monday(present) On to my first Memory Monday and what better place to start then how Tom & I met.

Tom's High School ride

1972 "John Dear Green" Chevy Nova. It had bucket seats so I used a pillow to sit on in between them. Seat belts? Don't think there were any!

It was May of 1976 when we met for the first time. It was at a "Field Party" and I need to defend myself before I get too far. I was raised in a very small country town in Ohio. At the time we were 35 minutes away from anything a teenager would want to do. No malls, no fast food, no movies. It was also legal to buy and consume ,I imagine, beer (3.2% alcohol and below)at the age of 18. Don't know if you can tell where this is going but there was a party "hosted" by a few graduating seniors, my brother Mark being one of them (although when I brought it up in front of my father a few years ago Mark denied it, I guess we never want to disappoint our parents) There was a keg of beer on the back of a trailer. I don't remember having a beer of my own but I was sitting on the trailer next to the keg pouring for everyone and it wasn't tapped quite right so there was a lot of foam. I felt it was my duty to drink said foam off of each and every cup of beer I poured. By the way, you CAN get drunk off of just foam. My best friend, Theresa Smith, was sitting next to me (her brother was our ride). She knew Tom from one of her classes (they were both Sophomores at the time and I was a Junior) she pointed him out to me because she thought he was cute and I agreed. A little later in the evening when another Sophomore was trying to get me to go into a tent that they had set up for well I'm sure you can figure out what for Tom witnessed my resistance and rescued me. On a side note when I got home at 11:15, 15 minutes late my father read me the riot act but didn't seem to notice that I was lucky to be able to stand on my own.

Me with a bad hair cut and tan in 1976 or maybe just a gatuitus bikini picture since it is my first and last!

After spending a month of that summer tanning in California at my sister's house I came back a fairly confident (even though I had my hair cut very short when my sister took me to a beauty college to get a $1 hair cut, a story for another day) Senior. When I walked into one of my first classes that fall guess who was there? You got it, Tom. I was determined to get his attention so I took the seat directly behind him. I would wear colorful socks and put my feet up on his chair so that he would have to ask me to move them. I was walking through football practice with another friend, Judy Collier, when I mentioned that I liked him she said that she knew him pretty well and wanted to know if I wanted to meet him. Of course I agreed. She invited us both over to her house on September 25, 1976, made us a Chef Boyarde pizza and he asked me to homecoming (I already had a date but I said yes anyway, it's wrong I know I still feel bad to this day) Anyway the rest they say is history. We still celebrate with a pizza and beer every September 25th.