50 years after that first date

I woke up Tuesday, Nov. 26, and realized that this day marked 50 years to the day that Nan?cy and I had our first date.

It was to a Pizza and Polka Party at the high school. I played my tuba in the polka band, and that?s about all I can remember about the evening. We probably ate some pizza but don?t recall anything about it.

Do I feel old? Sometimes, but not last Tuesday.

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Now she says she should have been wary of the whole deal back then when I said I had to take her home early from our date so I could go to the paper and put the Paul and Ray?s Grocery ad together yet that night, like every Tuesday.

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Nancy said something to me recently that made me laugh harder about something she has said than I can ever remember.

This whole broken-rib thing has been tiring on her. There is only so much one can do for another person and then it?s too much.

One Monday morning I was leaving the house and asked her when I should come back, meaning when would lunch be ready.

From around the corner and from back of the house I heard her say, ?How about a week from tomorrow??

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The 26th of November has always been a magic day. We got engaged three years later on the 26th of November, 1966. And while watching the TV show, ?Get Smart,? no less.

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As we are putting our house back together after the big move, I finally started on the office part of things. It is frightening how many little boxes and tins and baskets and coffee cups full of pencils, pens, Shar?pies, paper clips, keys, buttons of events, and whatnot that has accumulated over the years.

We now have a shoebox that is almost full of pencils?some have never been sharpened, actually lots of them.

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I went through all of the file folders located in two filing cabinets and discovered tons of stuff that is no longer useful for anything other than a remembrance of what things cost, or how things are supposed to work based on the owner?s manual?things we don?t have anymore.

What I found to be most interesting were in folders of my mom?s things that have lain dormant for nearly five years now and I am finally sorting.

Most of it is not relevant anymore, but the best finds were booklets and bulletins she had kept commemorating the days when our church built the building we are occupying now.

There is also a paper written by P.H. Schroeder that talks about the old church that was torn down to make way for the new.

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We are happy that son Dan has benefited from going back to school, and is now employed in the field of computer-assisted drawing related to the building trade.

If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my
e-mail address is joel@
hillsborofreepress.com.

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