Big Papa Guest Blog: He Said, She Said

For my anniversary present I asked Big Papa to write the story of how we met (before I showed him my version). Here it is…

I first caught a glimpse of my future wife from the kitchen window of my upstairs apartment. There was a light rain; she was rushing to carry a box from her Dad’s truck into her apartment. Jewels had a slim figure and thick red hair. I could not tell much else about her and did not see her for a couple of weeks afterward.

However, I did hear her; Jewels is quite the partier. I listened to her now familiar laugh late at night, when her friends were over having drinks. At times I wished they would all go to bed. Other times, I thought I should just go over and introduce myself.

I never did, because as much as I hate to admit it, I am shy. Luckily Julie had also seen me and was arranging an encounter. We met in the driveway when I arrived home from work, she was washing her car (this would be the first and last time she ever did this). I remember her making it clear the guy she was living with was just a roommate, and when I suggested we get together for a beer, thankfully she agreed, but when?

Here again I ran into the shy problem. It was a nice Saturday, maybe a week later? I knew she was home and it would be a great day to have a beer. I could not work up the nerve to go ask her. But here is the thing, to get to my apartment you had to unlock the downstairs door, then come up the stairs to my door, and there was no doorbell. That day, I had purposely gone down the stairs to make sure the door was propped open, so if she came over she could come up the stairs to my apartment door, which I also left open.

Sure enough, like a lobster entering a trap Julie came bounding up the stairs maybe an hour later. She was wearing her jean cut-offs. We went over to her place and I think I brought the beers. She made me a ham sandwich and we shot the breeze for the afternoon.

What we talked about I cannot really remember, but we were having a good time. In the evening some of her friends joined us and we went to the Red Dog tavern, which is a real institution in Peterborough. We kissed at her apartment door; in fact we went a bit beyond that, and we agreed to meet the next day.

I just remember on the Sunday we had Chinese food, and we have been together ever since.

Big Papa