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How We MetWe've all heard it from our oldest friends, from time to time: "Where and how did we meet?" We all forget, from time to time, the exact circumstances of our first encounters with long time relationships. But I always remember. And I've collected one such remembrance here...
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Esmerelda, you and I met back in Cleveland, in the winter of 1945. The war had just ended, and I had gone into the shoe polish repair business, which was a fast-growing field back then, since much of the nation's stock of shoe polish at that time had been badly damaged by the marauding bands of anti-shoe polish vigilantes who were known as "the Scruffies". I still remember their chants: "we don't shine! we don't shine!" Those were heady days, indeed, as I'm sure you'll recall. You were working for a company that imported poison darts from Borneo, and since I'd heard that there might be exciting new opportunities in shoe polish repair in that country (where the Scruffies were routinely hanged but still managed to remain numerous enough to wreak great damage on tins of shoe polish) I rang you up one day to ask you about it. I was thrilled when you told me to come by your office for more info, but do you remember how surprised I was when you threw that poison dart at me just as I stepped through your office door?
Haha! Those were crazy times! I remember once the paralysis had worn off and I was released from the hospital, we had a good laugh about it, over drinks at the Cleveland Hotel Bar and Grill. We were fast friends from that day, right up until I had to leave dear old Cleveland for my new job in Turkmenistan (about which I can say no more). I'm just so glad we could reconnect here on the internet, where we can share old memories, exchange photographs of what we had for lunch, and send each other little inspirational quotes.
Haha! Those were crazy times! I remember once the paralysis had worn off and I was released from the hospital, we had a good laugh about it, over drinks at the Cleveland Hotel Bar and Grill. We were fast friends from that day, right up until I had to leave dear old Cleveland for my new job in Turkmenistan (about which I can say no more). I'm just so glad we could reconnect here on the internet, where we can share old memories, exchange photographs of what we had for lunch, and send each other little inspirational quotes.