Sandy and I met in the workplace - I got a summer job during college at a store where she worked full-time. I thought she was VERY pretty though extremely quiet and shy. But I rolled the dice and asked her out on a date. She accepted, though she told me she was already seeing someone else. "What the heck?", I thought. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
So we went to see a movie. At some point during the evening, she called me 'Bob'......the "other guy's" name. "Nice. This is heading downhill fast." And that it was: As we were pulling into the parking lot of her apartment building at the end of the evening, she pointed and screamed at a car that was leaving - "THERE GOES BOB!!" She hopped out of my car right then and there and was gone. And "there goes Sandy.......", I thought.
Details get fuzzy for me after that evening. But suffice it to say, Bob went by the wayside (and no, there weren't any warrants issued for my arrest!!
) and Sandy and I continued to date each other the rest of that summer. I left town for my last year of school in the fall and we continued to see each other. But....(and you've GOT to know this is coming)....some of our conversations, directed by her, of course, started focusing on getting married.
As my graduation time got closer, the pressure started mounting - the screws were getting turned. (Incidentally, just for the record, Sandy will NOT deny that!) So I whipped out my 'ace in the hole' - I bought some time: I wanted to get through school, get a job teaching, do that for a year to make sure everything was working out well, and THEN we could talk more about getting married.
June 28th of the following year - almost a year to the day after my graduation - was our wedding day.
She won. I had no choice - it was either get married then or she was moving on. And she will not deny that, either!
Big blow-out gala wedding event: $50 for the church, $50 for the minister, immediate family only (14 people in attendance), wedding photography compliments of her mom's Polaroid (yes, I am being serious), a do-it-yourself reception at her parents afterwards.......then Sandy and I went water skiing with my sister and her fiance (his parent's boat) later that day!! No honeymoon - we couldn't afford one. It was back to work on Monday. Wedding rings? Sandy wore her mother's original wedding ring. We couldn't afford to have her ring and mine paid off by the wedding date - they were still in layaway. Seriously. But we were happy.....well, she was REALLY happy. I was still getting used to the concept (I'd told my mother years earlier that I was never going to get married).
So here we are today..........37 years later! Happy as two peas in a pod.....myself included!
I knew all along I'd never be able to find a better person and a better wife. I was just being stubborn...and frankly, very scared...way back when. What a big mistake I'd have made if I'd passed up the chance to be married to her.
And guess what? Sandy not nearly as quiet and shy as she used to be!!
That's our story.....thanks for reading it (if you made it this far)!
Bill