This morning I was reading the paper to Jerry over coffee. It's something we've always done…since the beginning of our marriage. That's going on 39 years now. I had stopped the paper about a year ago because we were always going out of town and the delivery man couldn't keep up with our schedule. So, I figured Jerry couldn't read anyway, so I'd just read to him off the internet. This week, I ran out of coffee, so I rode down to our local wine shoppe/gas station where I could buy some already brewed, steaming hot, coffee heavily laden with cream. Today, when I got back, Jerry was awake, so I put the sports section and coffee on the table for him. He read "Heels". I nearly dropped to the floor! Did he read that? Oh my! A few minutes later I began reading an in-depth article to him about the Carolina Tarheel football team playing Miami tonight. The article was talking about the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami where the Tarheels were staying. “Hey, Jerry. We’ve been there. You took me there when you were a hot young salesman.” As I reminisced with Jerry, he began to remember.
What a trip down memory lane! In our early years, when Jerry was a go getter. We were living in New Orleans. Many times, BC (before children), I traveled with him. This trip was to Miami where we stayed at this ritzy Fountainebleau glamour spot, where there were commercials being filmed and celebrities walking all around. That weekend, we got all dressed up in our "night on the town" duds and hopped into a cab, that took us to Joe's Stone Crab, a legendary restaurant known for it's stone crab. I was all of 22 years old and LIFE WAS GOOD! While we were there, in walked Mitsy Gaynor. Now for many of us dinosaurs…Mitsy Gaynor was one of those classic movie stars from way back. It was my first movie star sighting! I even remember what I had for dessert…..KEY LIME PIE! That was my first, too.
We introduced each other to so many things. We were so young and had a whole huge life ahead of us. He was four years older and we began dating when I was 17 years old. He was a college boy. We married when I was 19 and he was 24. Once I graduated from college, he was already on his way make his first million by the age of 25. Ahhhhhhh, such dreams.
THEN, we are dropped on the sidewalk of real life! But, we won't go there today. This place is too good to leave right now. Time to pour another cup of coffee.