Les Histoires de Coeur

     My 3 AM mental ramblings have resulted in this revelation entitled "Affairs of the Heart". I can tell that I'm getting old, in the twilight of my years when I feel the need to write. However, I also recognize the fact that photographs would not do justice to my memories. The names here are true but are irrelevant as they are so "gone" or even have passed.

     My first "true love" sprang upon me in the fifth grade when our class received a new student in about October of 1957. Her name was Laurie and so blonde and from so far away, proving that there was a bigger and better life beyond our small town in central Minnesota. The next spring I had a model of a 1958 convertible Cadillac convertible Coupe de Ville with a guy and girl in it. I told her it was us which angered her. Summer came and went but the following year's Christmas play had me as Joseph and she was Mary. This delighted me no end, however I caught pneumonia and missed the performance, being hospitalized. Laurie and her family moved the following spring and was lost to me forever.

     The next heart-throb of my life was discovered in 1961 when I became a high school freshman. A whole new world opened for me when the students from St. Mary's, a parochial school, started "high school". A tall brunette girl captured my heart for four years in high school - and that lasted for decades. Unfortunately I was so smitten I never had the heart to even ask for a date. She moved to the south a couple of years after graduation. Years (and years) later while visiting cousins down south I found her phone number and we went to dinner and she invited me to a party the next day. By then we both had our families and she has since passed away.

     The third and last chapter in the loves of my life occurred shortly after my divorce in 1982. I was driving home from work one afternoon when a girl in a yellow Sunbird car let me out into traffic - LA traffic was tough even then. I waved a "thank you" in my rear view mirror. Then I saw what she looked like and said "SAY WHAT" to myself! For the next few days I would see her driving the same street and we would wave to each other. Finally by the third day I pulled along side her and motioned for her to pull over so we could meet. It became really terrific after that going to lunch together quite often. Lori changed bank branches a couple of times so I would miss her for awhile. Then seeing her driving the opposite way I made a u-turn in the middle of the street and we ran together like we were in a hair shampoo commercial. I was in the midst of moving again and lost track of her when her neighbor said she had moved to Washington DC.

Squashed Laurels - sitting too long

I've been in Los Angeles for a couple of months now working on my delayed projects and I'm getting itchy feet to go somewhere again - it's too damn hot with triple digit heat here near San Bernadino! Taos New Mexico looks a lot cooler at 7000 ft.

So I've left Florida after visiting both cousins for a couple of months. On the way there I dropped off my co-pilot - granddaughter at the Charleston airport to return for school. Ella was a wonderful navigator and great company. While I was in Sebring I finished some repairs on the motor home - bent luggage door. Then later in North Port I replaced the starter and a battery. All in all it was a great time, cousin Buzz who I rode with the Viet Nam Vets and previously the Outlaws both of which he is a retired member.

Having been "gone" for two years by way of Minnesota to check on the family homestead and Seattle to visit my South Bay Brother Marc, it's time to GO. My cousin Len (FL) is going to meet me in Taos on his way (another RV'er) to Minnesota. A Hungarian friend who grew up in Soviet Budapest has moved to Deming and is on my "visiting list". He has first hand knowledge of what socialism is like-terrible!