Bob and I met on my 21st birthday on Wednesday, May 21, 1969, in Albuquerque, NM. I’ve recently discovered this is my “Golden Birthday”. I had never heard of that before. Your golden birthday occurs when your age matches the date of your birth. It has always been a special day for us but now it is even more special to me.
After my performance in the University of NM spring choir concert, a friend and I decided to go to the Pizza Hut for a late night snack. The only other people at the restaurant were a group of mostly young and fit men. After I sat down, I noticed a particularly handsome guy sitting directly opposite me at their table. We shared a few glances at each other and later shared how we were immediately attracted to one another. I shared with my friend how I felt, but I was in a quandary about how to get acquainted with him. Bob would tell you that I winked at him, but it absolutely is not true! My friend had a great idea. She went out to the car and brought in the small cake she had baked for me. Someone at the men’s table asked how old I was. When I said, “21”, he asked why I was drinking coke instead of beer. I didn’t drink alcoholic beverages and besides, my friend was only 20.
The guys got up to leave and I was afraid I would never see the handsome stranger again. To my delight, he walked over to our table and asked if it was really my birthday. When I said, “yes”, he offered me two free tickets to a baseball game. I thought he was asking me for a date, but I learned his name was Bob and he played on the Albuquerque Dodgers baseball team. He intended to leave two passes at the gate.
Later Bob called. I told him I would go to the game on Saturday night. By Saturday morning he had left two passes at the gate. He reminded me that the other pass was for my friend. I wondered if he was interested in my friend and not me, but he must have realized how it sounded and explained that his friend wanted to meet my friend.
The rest is history. We were engaged two months later and we married the day after Christmas that same year. Yesterday we celebrated 44 years of our first meeting and on December 26th we will celebrate 44 years of marriage. By the way, May 21st is a much easier day to celebrate than December 26th!
