Tomorrow Is My Husband's Birthday

Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday and it also happens to be the first day of spring.  The two are definitely linked as he always warms my heart and brightens my day.

The very first time I saw my husband was in the halls of our high school, to this day he has no memory of me there.  He was two years ahead of me and in the “cool” group (from my perspective); it was 1974 and his hair was long and his bell-bottoms were wide and striped.  I remember passing him in the hall as he joked with his friends.  He was very cute.

Three years later I worked in a woman’s clothing store, part-time, with two other friends from high school.  We were all working while in our first years of college together and on this particular day I was driving one of my friends to work.  I had no idea that the cute guy from high school, who was now a junior in college, lived across the street from my co-worker.  As I waited in my friend’s driveway, I noticed a guy in my rearview mirror; he came out of his house wearing just a pair of shorts, no shirt.  He put something in his trunk.  It was summer and his hair was light and shone brilliantly in the sunshine.  I watched as his muscles tightened in his arms when he lifted the trunk.  They tightened even more as he lifted what looked like a huge bag of laundry placing it “just so” in the trunk then gently closed the lid again.  He walked around to the driver’s side of the car and reached in for something then he disappeared back into the house.

By this time, my friend had come out of his house and plopped into my front seat.  I asked him who lived across the street and he told me his name and said he was a really nice guy and that I should remember him from high school.  Only then did I realize that the guy with the light hair and muscles was the same guy from the hallways at Upper Dublin High.  He had cut his hair but had only grown more handsome.  Now why couldn’t I meet nice guys like that?  With that thought spoken out loud,  (which, looking back, must have made my male friend feel great) I backed out of the driveway and off we headed for a day of work.

The following summer I was invited to another friend from high school’s special party – her engagement party.  My friend had just become engaged to her high school sweetheart.  (They, like us, are still married to this day.)  I was invited to her engagement party as we had known each other and been close for many, many years.  The “cute guy” from high school and the driveway was invited because he was great friends with my friend’s older brother.

At the party we were not seated together and didn’t even meet.  I was seated with people my age and he was seated with friends of her older brother.  Actually, I met another young man at the party that I began dating for a bit.   My girlfriend didn’t think he was right for me (she was correct) and because of that she was thrilled when my husband, who was looking at the pictures from her party, noticed me and asked who I was. 

I learned that the guy I was dating had asked someone else out behind my back, so, when my engaged friend told me that a particular guy had thought I was pretty (there's no accounting for taste) and wanted my number, I told her I would meet him.  I had no idea he was the guy I had thought was so cute for so long.

I remember our first telephone conversation and our first date.  He took me to a lovely restaurant and then we went disco dancing at a private club he belonged to in Philadelphia.  I thought he was very sophisticated and was really glad to learn he was also very gentlemanly, funny, nice, a great dancer and a smooth singer.  As he drove us home from dancing, a song, “Mind Blowing Decisions”, by Heatwave, came on the radio.  He sang it softly and lovely; I fell in love.

It is now almost 34 years from that first date…actually, this July will be 34 years.  The time has flown.  I remember those early days like it was yesterday.  I remember counting down the days to our wedding, the birth of our children, the days to various vacations.  Days that I hope I appreciated as much as the events themselves because it is those days that make a lifetime. 

That cute guy from the hallway at Upper Dublin High has always been there for me.  We have shared more years than we spent alone and I hope we share decades to come.  Tomorrow is his birthday.  I hope he knows that I am so thankful he came into my life.

Happy Birthday, Babe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rodTpSVmSBQ