Anniversary

As I mention on the welcome page, Keith and I are high school sweethearts. We met when our SC upstate high schools, Slater-Marietta and Travelers Rest, merged back in 1974. Keith is a Slater-Marietta boy born and raised. I lived at the foot of Paris Mountain near Furman University most of my childhood. Keith is six months older, but was a grade level ahead of me.

We met under precarious circumstances – specifically he kept me and my best friend from being suspended from school from a retaliation prank gone wrong. I and my friend, Lynn, were good students with absolutely no history of mischief. But rather than get mad at a prank played on us by some football players, we vowed to get even. Long story short: we mudded and TP’d (toilet papered) ALL the football players’ cars during practice on a hot and muggy late September afternoon. And while Keith had nothing to do with the players who tied us to a post at lunch and left us for the assistant principal to cut loose, his car probably got the worst of it because he got the bottom of the bucket of mud and rocks since he was the captain of the football team.

The players were furious, and the school admin was desperate to find the culprits. As fate would have it, Keith’s mom came around to pick up Keith’s sister from band practice while we were hot n’ heavy in our covert operation. Keith’s mom described us, Keith put 2 and 2 together and took it upon himself to explain to the principal the events of the day. Rather than being suspended, Lynn and I had to sit out one color guard performance at the next home game. Had we just retaliated against the players who tied us up I feel certain we would have suffered no consequences, but to this day Lynn and I live by the same motto, “Go big or go home.” 🙂

In addition to being an orchestra geek and a band geek, I was also an office nerd. After learning of Keith’s valiant gesture, I vowed to learn more about the cute, “white knight”,  Slater-Marietta boy. I pulled his schedule and would bust a move to walk past his classes in between class bells. I was unsuccessful in meeting him because somehow he had gotten my schedule and was trying to stalk me! lol Several weeks passed, but we finally met up during lunch and arranged our first date; a JV football game, and afterwards Pizza Hut on Poinsett Hwy on October 24, 1974.

By now you must be thinking, “What the hell has this story got to do with remodeling?”

For forty years, 10-24 has been our most revered celebration as a couple. Our marriage anniversary is special, but not nearly as endearing and as celebrated as our dating anniversary. At the beginning of this year we made extensive plans to celebrate our 41st year together in Mexico, followed by a side trip to Cuba. We planned a beautiful 10-day getaway until yonderways came into our lives.

Keith came into the bedroom last evening, October 27th, hugged me, and said, “We forgot our anniversary.”

OH.MY.GOODNESS.

We’re so exhausted and so distracted we literally don’t even know what day it is! But today I bought something that will forever remind us of our missed anniversary. I bought a large tin “A” that will hang at the entrance of the guest house we’re calling the Acorn, but the “A” really stands for “anniversary” – our 41st celebration of being best friends.