Today is Patty’s birthday. She is 77 years old, and she was 21 when we got married. I have written about it before, but I thought today would be a good day to share again how we met.
I played on the basketball team at the college I attended, and we practiced during dinner time, so our team ate in the cafeteria after everyone else was gone. Patty worked in the cafeteria as part of her financial aid package from the college, and she was the one who usually dished out our food for us each evening. One evening, our coach came in and announced loudly that we were given free tickets to the “Far West Classic” basketball tournament at the Memorial Coliseum, where some of the best colleges in the country would be playing, and the seats were close to the court. We all got super excited, and in the midst of our excitement, Patty yelled from behind the food counter, “Hey! I feed you guys every night; I should get to go!” The coach laughed and said, “No! Guys only”! Well, on the night we were going to the tournament, we all gathered outside the Student Union Building, where we were going to board our school’s bus to take us to the Coliseum. While we were standing there, Patty dressed up in a guy’s suit, which was way too big for her, with her hair stuffed up inside this man’s hat that was too big for her head. She looked like a homeless guy, and we all thought that was who she was until she got close and we recognized her. She intended to show up at the bus for a joke and then return to her dorm, but our coach told a couple of guys to grab her and haul her on the bus with us. When we got to the Coliseum, 16 College men got off the bus with Patty, who looked ridiculous! Everyone was teasing her through the whole evening, telling her how to walk like a man, clap like a man, and eat hot dogs like a man. They all were flirting with her, except me, and I thought, “What a dumb thing for anyone to do”! At half-time, everyone had left to go and get refreshments except Patty and me; she was about eight seats away from me. I turned and looked at her, and at the same time, she also turned and looked at me. Our eyes met, and she smiled at me. Thinking back on it, it reminds me of when I went fishing and I set the hook on a big steelhead; she hooked me good with that one look. The rest is history.