With that said, I have a story for you.
My wife Laura and I graduated from high school in the mid-1970s in Virginia Beach. She in June 1975 from First Colonial High School, and I in June 1974 from Kellam High School. Back then, the two rival schools held their graduation ceremonies on their football fields (in addition to playing their first football game of the year against each other).
The ceremonies were held on football fields because of the large structures that served as the home stands. They were the only venues on school property capable of holding all the family and friends of 500+ graduates. Of course, the weather played a huge role in ensuring that the commencement went off as planned. If the forecast called for rain, the gymnasium became the new location, and fewer folks could attend.
The weather for my graduation in 1974 was great. However…
I know what you are thinking… the weather for Laura’s graduation was terrible, and the ceremony was moved to the gymnasium… right? Well, Laura and her classmates only wish (to this day) that was what happened.
Laura’s graduation in 1975 was a complete disaster. Even though the forecast clearly called for rain, the decision was made to throw caution to the wind and hold the ceremony outside. Of course, the hope was that the rain would hold off until the ceremony ended… but unfortunately, that was not the case.
The skies opened up mid-ceremony, pouring buckets of rain onto Laura’s graduation. Her brand-new watch (a graduation present) was ruined, as was everything else forced out into the rain that night, including the white dress Laura wore beneath her robe (which turned blue to match it). The ceremony was so disastrous that it caused a scandal of sorts… it even made the papers. Articles were written full of accusations and finger-pointing.
I remember Laura telling me all about her ruined graduation when she came to work the following day… which dovetails into the much happier story of how we two met.
It was near the end of May 1975, just a few weeks before her soggy graduation. Laura took a summer job where I was working at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. I was on summer break after wrapping up my first year of college. She worked part-time until high school ended and then full-time until college began in August.
Truth be told, there are memories, and there are memories with a capital M. Looking up from my work and seeing Laura for the first time is one of the latter. Let it be known… I fell… and I fell hard.
I wish I could say things progressed like in movies and romantic stories… but I can’t. Being the “fast mover” I was back then (that’s sarcasm), I waited until September to ask her out. Yes… you read that correctly. I met Laura in late May, fell in love with her almost straight away, and then waited three months to ask her out.
This unwanted delay was caused by my being excessively shy around the opposite sex back then. So, I settled for getting to know Laura over the summer… and making sure she got to know me.
I did come close to asking her out once during the summer… on a day when I gave her a ride home from work. She usually rode a bicycle, but not this day. I drove a convertible back then (a 1968 Chevy Impala… I loved that car), and the weather was beautiful, so I put the top down, making the ride to her house a fun one for her and me.
During the drive, we talked a lot, and the words I wanted to say were right there on the tip of my tongue; they were also there as I pulled my car up to her house in the London Bridge area of Virginia Beach… and as she got out of the car… and as she thanked me for the ride… and as I watched her walk away. Even the magic of a top-down ride in a convertible on a sunny summer day in Virginia Beach, with Laura sitting beside me, failed to coax the words out of me. I was, for sure, a bit disappointed in myself that day.
I finally did ask Laura out… in September… after our summer jobs ended. Did I mention today is National Be Late for Something Day? Yes, of course I did. How’s that for being late for something? I asked her if she’d like to go with me to the opening night high school football game between her old school and mine.
Without hesitation, she said yes… and on Friday, September 5th, 1975, forty-seven years ago tonight, she and I (finally) went out on our first date.
A side story here… the date was supposed to be a triple date… with my best friend and his girlfriend… and his sister and her boyfriend. But the four of them suddenly had “other plans” that night. I quickly realized what was happening… they had helped me garner the courage to ask Laura out and then decided to leave that magical night to us alone. I suppose that makes this also a story about good friends… and what they will do for you when you least expect it.
Laura and I sat in the Kellam home stands that night, where she loudly cheered for the visiting team… her team… First Colonial. The looks from those around us (those “shouldn’t you be sitting in the stands on the other side of the field” looks) only made me love her more.
As happy as I was that night, I had no way of knowing—as I sat there next to this amazing girl who literally walked into my life three months earlier—that I was two years, four months, and two days away from marrying her.
And such is my life.
