After I graduated from STA, I stayed involved in the school as a kind of mentor in something they called Confraternity. It included watching over the undergrads as they got together for various group things. The school had a basketball court and a volleyball court on the top floor. I would oversee the students playing basketball since I played in an intramural league in high school (I did grow a little after graduating and wound up to be pretty athletic for my size).

    I forget the exact day, but I definitely do remember the first time I saw this totally beautiful young lady playing on the volleyball court. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was tall for her age and, allow me to be a little “un-PC” here (hey, I was 17), she was BUILT! I forget the circumstances, but I walked away from the basketball court and introduced myself. Apparently she was also taken with me. Plus I had the “cachet” of being in high school, whereas she was in the 8th grade. We started dating and, when people would mention that I was 17 and she was 13, I would simply say “Hey, check it out. Does she look 13?” (again, it was the 60’s and I was a typical teenager, so I was not yet “evolved”).

    I remember at some point, seeing a picture of Candice Bergen in Playboy Magazine and she was a dead ringer for her, but with a better build. Superficial? I will totally agree, and eventually it came back to bite me. But again, I was still in my teens and full of “hormones.” We had some ups and downs, dated on and off, yet I couldn’t stay away for very long. I guess it was a mistake to base things on looks, and it will be addressed later on. We eventually did marry in 1973.

    Note: A little, kind of "fork within a fork" (it won't be the last...) here. In the summer of 1973, before we got married, I and two friends of mine made plans for a road trip to California. One friend had to bail, and so we wound up taking along a friend of a friend. It didn't work out and it came to a head at the Grand Canyon. My friend and I were able to hike down to the canyon floor and back (awesome!) but when we got to the top, we couldn't take it anymore and headed back.

    So, in 1967, fork number 3, meeting my future wife.