Pardon Me While I Have A Strange Scooteresque Interlude

It was 20 years ago today that the woman who would later become my bride and I went on our first date. Dinner at Lum Chin Inn on Hylan Boulevard followed by drinks at Pennyfeathers on New Dorp Lane – both of which now being long since gone.

When we went on that first date, I did something that many might find bizarre. But, wanting to be different and being a baseball nut, it made sense to me. I took one of my old baseball magazines from the 1970′s and cut out a picture of Pete Rose. After picking up my beloved to start our evening, as we were in my car, I handed her the picture of Pete Rose and said “Here, I wanted to give you a Rose on this special night.” That should have been a tip-off as to what she was getting herself into with me. But, that didn’t scare her off – and, thirty-one months after that first date, we were married.

She’s hung in there ever since…having to endure all of my baseball fanaticism. And, trust me, it’s been a lot. A whole heap of “a lot” and then some.

For that, at the least, today, she’s owed this public “Happy Anniversary!” It’s been a wonderful – and fast! – twenty years…jam-packed with all sort of good stuff and adventures. And, I’m looking forward to another twenty – and then twenty more after that. (I figure by the time I’m 87, she’ll finally have reached her limit and had enough of me. Sixty years of having to listen to me prattle on about baseball is more than enough for anyone to have to deal with, right?)