By the time we met in person we had already become good friends just through out letters. Yes, that was before we had email -- we actually wrote real letters, put stamps on them and mailed them, then waited and watched for when a reply came a few days later.
Debbie lived in the small town of Antlers Oklahoma, the southern toll-gate on the Indian Nations Turnpike and home, at that time, of the only traffic light in Pushmataha County! Want to know what small-town living is like? Once Debbie sent me a letter and put the wrong zip code on it. The people at the Antlers Post Office saw it and corrected it before it left Antlers!!
On the day of that first meeting, I had determined that I would take her and Travis (age 8) and Kendra (age 4) out for dinner, not realizing that the only places in Antlers were the Bear Cat drive-in and a pizza place. And Hugo, 20 miles south, didn't have a whole lot more.
But Debbie had a far better plan. She cooked dinner for me! That was a first for this city boy!! And it was a wonderful one, too. Chicken-fried steak, real mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, iced tea -- maybe more. And we visited the whole evening, getting acquainted, learning much about each other. In fact, we sat there in her living room visiting until the very wee hours of the morning, after which I drove the 188 miles back to Stillwater.
You know "The Rest of the Story" -- or at least much of it. I kept going back -- and she would come to Stillwater -- until 3 1/2 years later she accepted my family name and moved to Stillwater as my Bride, my forever Newlywed.
19 years! Wow! She was my best friend then. She is not only my Bride now, she remains my very best friend, for whom I am so thankful!
No comments:
Post a Comment