I’m not sure what brought it to mind this morning but I was
thinking about an event from 47 years ago.
I met my husband in the summer of 1966, and I think this incident
happened that first summer.
I don’t remember if we had been out on a date or if he had
just come over to visit me at my parents’ home, but before he left, we were
standing in the kitchen talking. He remembered
he had something in the car which he wanted to show to me.
To picture this you need to know that my parents’ back door
had a combination storm/screen on it.
The door did not have a round handle, but a horizontal hook-like bar
about 3 inches long which you pushed to open the door.
Bill said, “Oh, there is something in the car I want to show
you.” He spun around, opened the door,
took one step out, and then leaped off the small porch instead of going down
the 2 or 3 steps. As he became
air-borne, his sport coat, which was unbuttoned, flew open. I can’t imagine what the odds of this might
be, but the door handle hooked into one of the buttonholes. He had enough forward momentum that this did
not even slow him down. As he flew off
the porch, the handle ripped through the buttonhole and tore the front of the
jacket in both directions creating a long dangling flap of fabric. When he
returned to the house, he had stuffed the remnant of the suit coat front into
the pocket creating a ridiculous wad. He
wore a sheepish, but ever-so-charming, grin on his face. I was initially horrified over the jacket damaged way beyond repair, but once I realized that he wasn’t upset, I
convulsed in laughter.
I did not consciously think, at the time, about what this
incident said about his temperament and character, but I do know people who
would have allowed such an incident to make them angry and ruin the evening. Instead, it was both a humorous digression
from and an important part of the serious business of getting acquainted…and falling
in love. I smile whenever the picture
comes to my mind.
