We were destined to be together, Donna and I.
This is the year that Donna and I have lived together as long as not. I'm not saying how old she is turning here in a few days (and, I, a few days later), but we'll have been married 22 years this June and, thus, will have lived together as long as we had lived apart before our marriage.
Although she was a country girl and I was a city boy - separated by hundreds of Kentucky miles - we were bound by a love of bicycles and wide open spaces, as you can see in this photo of young Donna Beth with her older brother, David.
We grew up unaware of one another's presence. She was baptized in her Southern Baptist church at age eight and I, in my Southern Baptist church at age ten. She graduated at the top of her class in her western Kentucky high school and I, well I graduated from my Louisville high school.
(Or, looking at it another way, she was only the 69th or so from the bottom of her class and I was probably about 250 or so away from the bottom of my class. It's all in how you frame things.)
We both grew up to be youth leaders in our respective traditonal churches, going to the same sorts of Baptist camps, crying over Pass it On ("I'll shout it from the mountain tops! I want the world to know....") around the campfire. Seriously silly.
She practiced Keith Green songs on the piano, I tried to play them on the guitar. We were so alike in so many ways.
But, there she was - stuck south of Possum Trot (just down the road from where Elvis was born) and I was firmly rooted in the Derby City. How would we ever manage to meet?!
More to come...
13 comments:
Congrats to you and Donna Dan. I look forward to reading more of the story.
Nice bikes and nice story, which will continue. Congratulations on getting so old. There's actually still a long way to go.
You have similarly odd senses of humor, both play many instruments.
She is obviously more spiritual since YOU didn't go to seminary. :)
Congrats, to both of you.
oooooh, a love story! Gwan! Gwan and tell it, ya big lug!
Thanks, everyone. I thought I'd share a bit about my wonderful life and wife as a break from serious stuff.
In fairness, the bit about being bound by biking (alliteration alert!) is a bit of an exaggeration, to fit with the bike photo.
But the rest is all true!
So, it wasn't really love at first bike?
What'd y'all do? Run off an elope again??
Hey! Possum Trot is just down the road from me!
Hmmm...
Awww...
What a sweet anniversary to mark!
'It only takes a spark... to get...'
Oh great, now that's in my head.. :-)
Woodog
Those of you who didn't go to evangelical camps and youth outings will fail to recognize the near-diabolical insidiousness of the song, "Pass it On." It wraps its hideous tune around your brain and spinal cord and refuses to release its hold short of much drinking and headbanging (which, as you see in the next post, is a no-no...)
I just got up from the piano where I had been practicing a Ketih Green song, "Create in Me a Clean Heart." I have no musical talent, just play by ear, but I have never outgrown Keith Green - since my teen years.
Donna used to tinker on piano some (before she discovered the joy of stringed instruments - REAL stringed instruments; not pianos with their hidden strings!) and one song she learned to play was Green's "My Eyes Are Dry," which is a beautiful song.
I still appreciate Keith Green and credit him at least partially with the paths my life has taken.
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