| | They're digging up my road to re-line the water pipes. Right now my
driveway is blocked and my substitute water (from a hose thing) is
spluttering. Interesting to watch, though. I enjoy peering into the
depths of the little constructoids they dig to find the pipes. I'm an
archaeologist in a parallel universe, I'm sure.
Tomorrow, my husband and I will have known each other for 26 years,
although we have been married for less than a year! In 1980,
15-year-old me attended a swimming party at a friend's house and was
introduced to 16-year-old Dave by a mutual friend. After the swim, I
sat next to him on a sofa in the basement and got acquainted. He seemed
shy, smart, awkward, creative, funny. We lived about 30 minutes' drive
apart, we discovered, along the Welland Canal (he in Thorold, me in
Welland, Ontario), and in those days it was a long-distance telephone
call as well. So we resolved to write to each other, and once a week he
would come to see me on his moped.
This resolution resulted in a huge bundle of letters, drawings, and
postcards that I kept long after he and I broke up in 1984. When we got
back together, in 2003, we admitted to each other that we'd finally
thrown out that correspondence, each certain, after almost two decades,
that we'd never see the other again.
On my kitchen wall, though, in a frame, is a single yellow envelope
which survives from that time. Dave used it as a sleeve for a 45-rpm
vinyl single record for many years, so it didn't get tossed with the
others. In my girlish hand, it is addressed to Dave, with my parents'
address for the return. Letters cost 17 cents to send at that time. It
is postmarked August 8, 1980, only 12 days after Dave and I met.
A sentimental souvenir.
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| | Posted 7/26/2006 11:49 AM - 7 views - 22 comments
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ryc: Thank you so much, you're so sweet!
That's such a sweet story... I've kept my correspondence with old flames... even though I wouldn't want to relive the relationship I've had with one of them... it's just a nice memory. Enjoy your day!
(Confederation heights resident here). That is a beautiful story ... makes me wonder whether I shouldn't contact one of my highschool sweethearts, whom I haven't seen for the better part of 15 years, just in case.
