MORE MEMORIES

         If our children read Saturday’s post, I’m sure they’re shaking their heads and saying, TMI, TMI, TMI, mom. That’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact John and I had sex before and after our children entered our lives. How else did they come to be if not. In fact, since there’s 10 years between the two, John and I had to practice a lot before Thor came to be.

More memories have surfaced since I wrote Saturday’s post. I remember John chasing me around and us ending up on the bed in our room. AJ would come to see what was going on and John would tell him we were wrestling. Of course, AJ would then want to join in and we welcomed him on to the bed. I believe we did the same kind of thing with Thor. And, don’t be misled here, we weren’t actually having sex, just having fun with our clothes on.

Then, there’s the memories of being together in my apartment. The long weekends…only two days, but they seemed so very long then. John would spend Friday night, we’d have breakfast and go back to bed. If we didn’t go to bed, the apartment came with a very comfortable sofa. I cannot remember how many weekends we spent on that couch under a blanket wrapped around each other.

That kind of weekend probably wouldn’t happen today because there’s television, smart phones and computers. Back then, in the dark ages, unless we listened to the radio which was just music, the only other option was to read. We had absolutely nothing to distract us from each other.

When I met John, he was driving a red Pontiac convertible. After we’d been dating a month, he put it in the garage so he could change out the rings or whatever. During the months…yes, months…it took to rehabilitate the Pontiac, he drove a 1951 Chevy coupe. One day we were having an argument about something. I was sitting on my side of the car instead of next to him (no seatbelts then either) when he got on the freeway at 45^th to go to Northgate to a friend’s house. When the car got up to speed, the hood suddenly flew up and smashed the window…it hadn’t been secured. Scared the crap out of both of us and we had glass pieces all over us. The laughter from being scared took care of whatever the argument was about.

That Chevy also had three bullet holes in the back window. John made up some story about getting shot at, about having a gun under the driver’s seat (he probably did), and I believed him, hook, line and sinker. Those bullet holes were actually decals. John even told me at one point that when he said, “Honestly.”, he was seriously telling the truth…another falsehood. Still, the stories he made up were, for the most part, entertaining.

The Pontiac hit the road by summer that year. This was back when people went out for Sunday drives (I miss those too.). We had such fun, and got sunburned, taking our Saturday and Sunday drives around Seattle and environs in that convertible . I remember John driving through Seward Park and Alki Beach. In fact, a few weeks before John died, we took a drive so we could go through the new tunnel on Hiway 99 (what a disappointment). We decided we’d just keep driving and crossed the bridge to go to Alki. WOW, it had been a couple of decades since we’d made that jaunt and neither of us could believe how much that area has been developed.

I was driving and made my way down what I think was Beach Drive. It was sunny and there were lots of people hanging out, plus there was some kind of an event happening on the beach. When I got around the corner, I expected the road to stop, because that’s what it had done the last time we’d been there. Now, the road continues and it’s a good thing John knows Seattle, because I had no idea which way I should go or where I was when we made it to Fauntleroy Way. I would have had to turn around and go back the way I came.

There are so many places we traveled on our drives. Even though the suburbs and towns like Monroe, Snohomish, Sedro Wolley, have grown and changed, when I drive those roads, there’s always something that I see that reminds me of a drive John and I took together. Even when a particular monument has disappeared, I still recognize the area.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me since we spent so many years together, but at times it does. I’ll see something new or something gone and want to talk to John about it. There’s the new roundabout on 10^th Northeast, all the new apartment buildings going up on 155^th Street…so many changes I’ll not be sharing with him today or in the future. Still, as I stated in Saturday’s post, I have the memories.