He somewhat
resembles a guy I met in the snackbar at Oberlin College more than forty years
ago, but his hair is thin and grey and sticking straight up more often lately,
as he’s taken to rubbing his head to ease the stress of thinking hard. He
consumes about 12 pills a day to control his cardiovascular disease, including
Prozac so he doesn’t worry about it, and a huge nightly goblet of medicinal red
wine. He loves his dog Rocky and eats the exact same breakfast every
day—Cheerios with neatly cut banana slices all over the top, and a big glass of
orange juice. The grandkids call him Bepa.
It was 1966 when we
met, and this guy made quite an impression on me, considering a rather strange
start. Introduced by a mutual friend who slipped into the booth to say hi, he
asked me out on a date—the movies, a double feature at the Apollo Theatre. The thing
was, he had a date with somebody else for the second show (she was baby sitting
in the early evening). Well, okay...
So I sat through Our
Man in Rio with this guy, and then sat by myself through The Girl with
the Golden Eyes. Interesting…I encountered the guy with his second-feature
date in the lobby afterward, and he suggested the three of us go off to a party
at a friend’s… I was intrigued enough to tag along, but stayed just minutes and
walked myself home to my dorm. David Ford was this guy’s name, from Livingston,
New Jersey. Smooth operator…
The next day the
“test” continued. I was invited to the movies again, this time just myself, to
see Toshiro Mifune in The Seven Samurai at Hall Auditorium, but David
and his friend dared me to wear an Iron Man t-shirt they gave me. I did, with a
black skirt and a single gold hoop in my left ear. Strange days…That evening, a
first kiss, just one.
It was just about
this time of year that we met, because I remember us one evening writing each
other’s names in the snow on Tappan Square, that center of campus crisscrossed
with paths under huge elm trees, before the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease.
Dave…Wendy… He had big soft brown eyes and brown hair and lived in a room above
his landlady’s house at the northeast edge of town by the elementary school. He
was studying sociology, and cared about social justice. He loved animals. He
actually listened to me when I talked.
We just kind of
started talking about our future life together. We’d have a pool table, and
maybe some pet monkeys. A playful, joy filled life.
It’s nice to look back and remember.
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