Part Zero (since part one and two were already posted out-of-order)
Before they said it’d never last, there is the story of how we met. Begin at the beginning and proceed in sequential order. Nice neat and orderly or maybe a tad bit compulsive. Always! I hate stories that are out of sequence with flashbacks. Well I don’t really hate them. I am just jealous that I am not creative enough to write that way. Quentin Tarantino is the master as in my all time favorite movie Pulp Fiction. You heard me right. Pulp Fiction is right up there with Little Miss Sunshine and Steel Magnolias or Terms of Endearment. YES I am an enigma! And I have wandered down a rabbit hole. Ugh now back to task.
I met Billy Bob for the first time in 1970 something at a Communication Workers of America (CWA) round-up at Comanche Park. I got to tag along with my bestie Cindi Lou Who. Her dad and my father in law to be grew up next door to each other, were best friends and eventually worked together. This work related outing was where our paths first crossed. Cactus Country was the band that evening but he didn’t ask me to dance 😦 Heart broken but not really. I would have danced with anybody – Todd, Ricky, it didn’t have to be Billy Bob and it didn’t matter because the minute the band started they went off to the Salado Creek to go fishing (code for who knows what, but fishing is what they called it). The next time I saw him again was when he tagged along with his dad to drop off picket signs at Cindi’s house and I just happened to be there. Just a glimpse through the window but I still remember butterflies. It’d be a few years before I found him again.
Freshman year I made new friends with girls from St. Benedict’s. We ran wild and started hanging out with the EC punks. Bad news for sure and dangerous but I still have a thing for rebellious types. Bri was everywhere we were … Pizza Hut, Sonic, El Tipco, Lakeside Park, Utotem, The Golden Stallion, Blue Bonnet Palace, St. Hedwig, Calavaras Lake, Walzem Game Room, Galaxy Theater, etc… We were friends first; lots of stories to tell the kids (or not). When I say dangerous, I mean literally. I often wonder how we survived.
No romantic sparks flew until August of 1983. My dear friend Linda was shipping off to Ft. Dix NJ. Her parents hosted a going away party for her at none other than Comanche Park (fate?!?, I think so). When the party ended, we weren’t ready for the night to end. We were “babysitting” two of our mutual friends (the girl spending the night with me and his friend staying with him). Somehow we all ended up back at my house. Billy Bob and I sat in lawn chairs in my front yard eating cantaloupe and talking for hours about EVERYTHING. We had so much in common and what was different was very new and exciting. I didn’t even get a kiss good night that night but from then on, we saw each other every single day.
Our engagement was ever so romantic … NOT. We were driving down Southcross at the light at Pecan Valley about to turn right and go up two blocks to Glamis. I was showing him my parent’s rent house that had just become available. He said maybe he should move in with me. I said uh no, I could never do that to my daddy (or mom but mainly my dad). I told Billy Bob that he could visit me anytime but he’d have to leave by 10 pm. He said well, maybe we should get married then. I say well ok. sure. And that was it. No ring worth six months salary. No proposal on bended knee. Non-traditional but so US. Best split second decision we ever made. And the rest is history. No wonder people talked as they sometimes do. What were we thinking?!?!? We weren’t. We were young, in love and we took a leap of faith. That’s enough rambling for now.
As always, more to come.
Happy 25th in Seward Alaska, in front of Exit Glacier. The soot is from a volcano that erupted a week before we got there. The guide said the glacier is self cleaning and would be all blue again soon enough. Maybe we should go back and check that out for ourselves 🙂
J-Dub's Grin and Bear It 