50 Years Ago Today... The day we met

It was January 25th 1963.  My friend Lester and I were to play on a radio program in Oakes ND.  We were a guitar duo.  His girlfriend, Lucy, was one of the singers in another duo also performing that day.  Her singing partner was a young girl, who had just turned 15 a month before. Peggy.  We had to sit together in the front seat of the Ford because the back seat was full of amplifiers and guitars.  I had to sit too close to Peggy.  I already had a girlfriend.  This was a set up. Yet she stunned me... I was this guy, 2 years older than she was, Peggy was this amazing girl.

We talked for a long time.  We found that we had much in common. She was of like faith.  She shared my political background.  She came from the same Germanic stock I did.  Everything was right about her. I was taken with her.  Sparks flew. She seemed to like that tall skinny guitar player sitting next to her too.

There was a difficulty.  I had a girlfriend of a couple years.  One I believed was the one that would lead to marriage.  Yet, Peggy disturbed all of that.   My life had changed.

It wasn't her beauty, although she was really pretty (still is).  It wasn't her personality, although being with her always made me feel better.  She was a breath of fresh air in my life.  I was drawn to her.  Not love at first sight. That attraction I try to explain to people when they ask, "How do you know if she's the ONE?".  I always say, when you find yourself thinking about her all the time and you don't see how you can go on in life without her.  That is love.  That was what it became for me.

I fumbled the ball a few times as a foolish young man, yet in the end, I knew she was the one.  There was no turning back.  I was a teenage boy with all the things that go with overdrive hormones.  She was always wonderful.  I shudder to think how it might have all gone wrong. 

This encounter on a sunny warm Dakota day changed my life forever.  Now 50 years later I am so glad it all came out as it has.  I have loved her for 50 years.  We remember this day with fondness.  Our wedding was a few years later, but this is the day we remember.. and will forever.

I wonder what wonderful things the next 50 years will bring?