Autumn is my favorite time of year. It always has been, and probably always will be. To me it is a time of year that brings change, the heat of summer is displaced by the cooler air of the coming winter, the leaves change color and then they fall. I look back now and see that I was not unlike those leaves in the autumn of 1974. For it was then that my life changed, and I fell, in love with the girl I now call “Mama”.
It was late September of that year, when some friends of mine asked me to go to a football game with them. I agreed to, and drove to the high school in Mahomet, Illinois. I seem to remember it being a cool cloudy evening. The game had started and my friends and I sat there in the bleachers watching it. Around the time the first quarter ended I had to scoot over because someone was squeezing in to sit between my friend and I who was sitting just to my right. I looked, and my eyes fell upon a cute little curly haired girl wearing a sweatshirt, blue jeans and red low topped sneakers. I didn’t really know her, but I did know that she was a cousin to the kids I was at the game with. I also noticed that she seem to be sitting very close to me considering the room that she had available on the other side of her.
I don’t recall saying anything to her, and I don’t remember her saying anything to me unless maybe it was a remark about a play that just took place on the field. She seemed to be more interested in talking to her cousins that were sitting around her. Then it was in the third quarter that this curly haired girl that was getting cuter every time I looked at her, wrapped her hand around my upper arm and didn’t let go of it for the rest of the game.
I wasn’t sure what to do here. As a young man I was very shy, I mean, I had never even asked a girl out on a date before. And when the game was over, I did what I felt to be the safe thing, I said goodbye and started walking back to my car. When I was almost to the car, I heard someone from behind me yell “ Hey!“. I turned to look and there she was again running up to me. She ran up to me and asked me if I would take her to the homecoming dance the following weekend. With the fastest response of my life I said, “I don’t dance!”. She said, “That’s ok, I want you to take me anyway”. I told her that I would think about it and I got into my car and left.
The next week passed along as it normally does, with the exception of my mind being on this girl with the red shoes. Even though down inside of me I wanted to, I had no plans of contacting her and letting her know about the dance.
I was lying on the couch watching television that Wednesday evening when the phone rang. It was her on the phone and she asked me if I was going to escort her to the dance. I don’t know what possessed me to say it, but my response was “yes” and we then made arrangements for the game and the dance to follow. I hung up the phone and looked around at my mother and sister both looking back at me with a shocked look on their faces. Apparently they were feeling the same thing I was.
I went out and bought her a corsage and me some new clothes and that Friday evening, I took my first girl out on a date. We held hands all through the football game, then afterwards when back to her house for a snack and to get dressed for the dance. I thought that she was the prettiest thing I had ever seen standing there in her long green dress. We then went to the dance and I actually did make an attempt at dancing, though I think I accomplished nothing more than looking foolish. But at least I tried. She told me that her church group was having a weenie roast and hayrack ride the next night, and asked if I would go to it with her. With a growing confidence in myself, I said yes.
After the dance I took her home and walked her to her door. I had enjoyed the evening with her and I felt that for some reason she enjoyed my company also. I had decided long before we got to this point that I was going to kiss her on this night, I had never kissed a girl before, not like this anyway. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, and I was thinking about things like where my nose should be when I kiss her. She stood there next to me talking about the evening with her head looking down. She finally looked up and I kissed her with a kiss that was short but had the impact of a sledgehammer hitting her in the face. She later told me that I almost broke her nose. I then walked to my car and left. She went into the house and her Mom and Grandma were waiting inside for her. They simply asked, “ Well? And she replied, “He kissed me!”
I will never forget the ride home that night. My mind was full of her, and it was as if I could still feel her hand in mine as I replayed every second that I had spent with her. I could still taste her lipstick on my lips, and I began to fall in love for the first time in my life.
When I arrived home I went straight to my room and began going though my dresser. I looked until I found my class ring and I had decided that I was going to offer it to this little cutie tomorrow night. I needed to get to bed, it was late and I was to go to a University of Illinois football game the next day. But on this night my mind wasn’t on football, but rather on her and the weenie roast, and I went to sleep with thoughts of her in my head.
The next day I watched the football game anxiously awaiting the coming evening. It was a televised game, and that night she would tell me that she watched it hoping to see me in the crowd. I left the game and went to her house to pick her up. As we drove to the weenie roast I was hoping that I would have enough nerve to carry through with the plans I had made regarding the ring. Then that evening they loaded the rack wagon and I knew that if I was going to give it to her I had better do it here.
Our legs dangled over the edge of the rack wagon as we slowly moved down a country road on that cool autumn night Though the wagon was full of people, we seemed to be alone as we sat there talking and feeling the cool breeze in our faces. It was then that I made the most daring move of my life. I took my ring off of my finger and in my inexperienced romantic voice said, “Do you want this?” She took the ring as if I had just given her a million dollars. And at that moment a new life started for both of us on that rack wagon under a pale October moon.
It has now been almost twenty-eight years since that night, and wonderful years they have been. Looking back I have long known that it wasn’t a mere coincidence that I was at that football game that night. In fact it was the first high school game I had ever been to. I believe it was fate that brought two lonely people together to form a love that will be strong till the end of time. They say that spring is the season for new beginnings, but for me it was the fall.
Jack Roberts
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Reviewed by Tracey L. O' Very
1/24/2005
OH how romantic. This is so sweet! Good for Mama for being the forward one here and I totally enjoyed this! the first kiss yeah where does our nose go? lol and hey I got a few of those tuff 1st kisses too. so don't feel so bad.
Congratulations and I know this Love will last through Eternity!
Love Tracey xoox for the two of ya.
thanks Jack for sharing this one. This is really nice. I'm just a smilin' here.
so precious; enjoyed! you are so blessed! :) (((HUGS))) and love, your texas friend, karen lynn.
Reviewed by Kelie Urbanec
3/15/2003
Very sweet. That is such a cute story. I hope that one day that i might have a story somehow similar, and I hope that i will stay with that person till the end of time. Nice story.
~Kelie~
Nice. It goes without saying that each of us who have found that "special" person and manage to hold onto them for as many years as you have, deserve to do a little boasting and remembering. What makes your story so unforgetable is simple. You wrote it and I kust know Mama is proud.
Reviewed by Connie Hinnen Cook
3/8/2003
Ah, this brought back a lot of memories for me. The only thing that would make this write more perfect is a picture of her in that green dress! I love it, Jack!
Reviewed by Cathy Montgomery
3/7/2003
You both are blessed! Enjoyed this beautiful story of you and your wife's enduring love...
Reviewed by Kate Clifford
3/7/2003
This is a very beautiful sharing of the great love you are experiencing. It gives the rest of hope :-) Wonderful write.
You two were obviously meant for each other . . . which is super! Not everyone meets someone who can/will love them forever. Growing older causes many of us to change and some of those changes are like wedges, driving couples apart. How delightful that you two have only grown closer :)!
Great story! Hope you've shared it with her as it's quite romantic :)! Sandy
Reviewed by *********** **********
3/6/2003
Awwwww Jack that is so beautiful...You're both so lucky to have found each other....all of us deserve a happy ending. Tell her, I don't think it was the green dress that caught your heart...for you were in love with here when you very fist seen her....Thanks for this Jack....a delight to read.....Dani
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