Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, May, 1993
It was the end of my sophomore year and Sis's freshman year. I had gone to meet up with some friends at my favorite bar at the time, The Dugout. I was looking for my friend Luay to tell him I was leaving and he happened to be talking to Sis. Well after he introduced me to her I decided to stay and had a nice time chatting with her.
I thought we really hit it off but the next day when Luay and I ran into Sis and her friends at Nelson Diner she had no idea who I was! She said it was because I was wearing glasses. Some impression I made!
Luckily for me, after she realized who I was she agreed to go out with me and we had a really fun end of the school year and summer hanging out in Athens.
Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1993
So I meet Sis at the end of the year at Ohio University and she tells me her sister is graduating from high school and she doesn't have a ride back to Cleveland. Of course I spot the opportunity to be the gentleman that gets her home for this important family affair, spend more time with her, and bonus: dazzle her with my 1980 Toyota Celica so off to Cleveland we go.
Sis, although well traveled, is not the best with directions as I found out when we entered the greater Cleveland area on I-71 and I asked her how to get to her house. At least she knew she lived on the west side! So we took 480 west and she knew Clague Road so we got off there and eventually made our way back to Fairview Park. Luckily we now have cell phones to get us where were need to go!
I got to meet the entire Malley clan in one fell swoop as we went to the graduation ceremony and out to dinner at Pier W to celebrate. I just remember thinking how fun and nice they all were and they made me feel like one of the gang even though they just met me.
Later that night Sis, Megan, Lori, and I ended up at the old Rascal House down at CSU when it was an under age cheesy dance bar. I think we were slightly overdressed. It was a really fun night.
Before we went back to Athens we went downtown to the old stadium with Sis's friend Meg to watch the Indians. I think we were just about the only people there. I had never been to Cleveland or any old industrial city before and the sight of the Cuyahoga river, the steel mills, the buildings, and that stadium down by the lake were very impressive to me. Sure it's a cliche but Cleveland does rock, and so do the Malleys.
Toronto, Ontario, August 1997
The first vacation we took together was to Toronto to see the Phantom of the Opera. I brought my suit for my first time going to the theater. I realized after I got dressed that the only shoes I brought were my Birkenstocks. No time to buy shoes so I had to go with it. I guess I'm not a trendsetter since the suit with Birkenstocks look never caught on...at least not yet!
Also on that trip we went to the Toronto Italian Festival, which had carnival type games to play. That was around my glory days of playing pool in Athens so I tried the pool game which was a regular pool table with extra small pockets. I got lucky and won this Tweety Bird. I think Sis was impressed.
Junction City, Kansas, Summer 1998
After one year at Progressive Insurance, Sis applied for and got a promotion to be the network administrator for their west coast region, based in Los Angeles. This region includes Las Vegas.
That summer we drove from Cleveland to Los Angeles, seeing sights along the way. We stopped in Junction City, Kansas for a few days to see my Nonna and Grandpa, my grandparents on my mom's side, Jim and Pierina Van Zlike, and my mom's brother, Uncle Jamo, and his sons, my cousins Jimmy and Corey. My grandfather was a retired Army Sgt. Major who met my Nonna in Trieste, Italy after the end of WWII, and had been stationed at Fort Riley when he retired and they decided to stay in Kansas.
Sis and I got a flat tire about 30 miles outside of Junction City in a construction zone but I changed the tire and we made it to 506 Skyline Drive around sunset. A long-standing tradition at that address is a night or two of penny-ante poker on that green, pool table felt, table cloth you see in the picture. These poker games have been going on for nearly 50 years.
My grandparents had a tight-knit, great group of friends that are basically family to me. Trudi and Jerry Myers, Lori and Leonard Julian, Lou and Daggie Lang, Cy and Trudi Carter, Jim and Delores Nelson, my grandfather from another great-grandmother, 'Uncle Bill' Hauser, and many others. Great, great people, every one. All have played poker at that table.
Sis had not played poker before and we taught her all our standard games, stud poker, 5 card draw, 7 card, high Chicago, no-peeky, hi-lo, jacks or better, trips to win, and on and on. Little did I know that that night a gambler was born.
After stopping in Denver to see my Grandma (Ione) Johnson and my dad's brother, Uncle Jeff, along with my Colorado family, the Wilsons - Lotte (her husband Robert passed in 1989), their daughter Ingrid (Mousie), son Bobby, Mousie’s son Devon, and Bobby’s son Jason - close friends with the Van Zlikes since Augsburg, Germany, 1965, we made our way to Las Vegas via Utah and Arizona.
That's when Sis discovered video poker. Uh oh. All I can say is at one point I was asked to hold and then give back her ATM card. Sis fell in love with Las Vegas that trip and Vegas being one of the cities in her territory was a frequent stop for her during those years. One time when we were at the Flamingo we ran into a waitress who walked up to us and told her that someone was at ‘her machine’. Thank goodness for her (and me) she is quite lucky and has had quite a few video poker Royal Flushes over the years. I guess she can hold the ATM card.
Chicago, Illinois, May, 2013
Sis was in Los Angeles for three years. For part of that time I had returned to Ohio University to pursue a degree in Computer Science. It was the dot.com boom and I never could figure out what to do with my degrees in Political Science/Economics anyway so I thought I’d give programming a shot. (Yes I was in college a long, long time.) We ended up back in Cleveland when Sis decided to go to work for her family’s company, Malley’s Chocolates. I ended up getting a job with a local up-and-coming software company. Things settle in and we get an apartment and the years go by, faster than you think. All of a sudden I’m 40!
Sis, being a Malley, likes to go big on stuff like a milestone birthday so she gets us tickets to see the Rolling Stones in Chicago for two nights in the ‘tongue pit’. That is, the stage was in the shape of the famous Rolling Stones tongue logo with a runway along the edge of the tongue but was hollow in the middle for a small number of fans to stand and watch the show.
The Rolling Stones had been my favorite band since my days at OU when I lived in Smith House on South Green and my friend down the hall, and eventual apartment mate, Bryan Shepherd, let me know that it was ok to love both the Beatles and the Stones. He introduced me to their entire catalogue. I really only knew the radio hits you would find on ‘Hot Rocks’ up to that time.
I also met my best man, Jack Hamoui, at Smith House at OU. On South Green they call sections of the floor “mods”, or at least they used to. It was laid out with two mods to a floor, two halls to a mod, one male hall and one female hall. I mostly hung around with Jack, Bryan, and Is (Ismail) that year in Smith House. Jack later got a two bedroom apartment at 1N Station Street that I moved to my junior year. Bryan had moved into a house with some other people and after about a week he realized he wanted out so he asked us if he could live with us. We told him jokingly that it was only a two bedroom but there was a big closet he could live in. I wasn’t sure a single bed would even fit. He came over and looked at the closet and said, “I’ll take it!”
Anyway, back to Chicago. We got to the United Center and made our way to the pit and I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was pretty impressive to see that stage upon entering the arena. We got down to the pit and staked out a spot along the runway. For over two hours the Stones ran through their biggest hits while Mick, Keith, and Ronnie strutted around that runway just a few feet from us. Thank you Sis for the best birthday ever! Two nights later we got to do it all over again and Bee and Rachel flew in for that night as Rachel got tickets for Bee’s birthday.
PS Sis decided that she had to outdo herself for my 41st so she planned a trip to New York where amongst other things we got to see one of David Letterman's last shows and Larry David in his play, Fish in the Dark, two of my favorite entertainers. It was as good or better than "the big 4-0." I think she's a keeper.
Athens, Ohio, May 28th, 2016
Sis and I are both very easy going, laid back, people (at least we think we are). It’s not that we were opposed to getting married or of marriage as an institution but more that we were just fine being how we were and time happened to be flying by…ok, so maybe a few more years than average flew by.
Anyway, for me I just kind of woke up one day and thought this is getting ridiculous. Let’s do this.
I had thought about it over the years and always intended to go back to Athens, to the spot we first met, The Dugout, on Memorial Weekend, which was a special weekend for us, to propose. Somewhat recently, Sis had mentioned that she thought it would be fun to go back to Ohio University for a weekend but I put her off knowing that I wanted to go in May. A couple of weeks before, I called down to Venice, Florida to ask Bill for his daughter’s hand. I think I surprised him but both he and Adele were ecstatic.
I nonchalantly suggested to Sis that we go down to Athens for Memorial Weekend since she had been wanting to go and it was around the anniversary of when we first met. I thought she would just say yes right away but I had to convince her. I think that’s when she knew something was up. Without much more cajoling she agreed to go.
We drove down to Athens and checked into the OU Inn. Then we started making the rounds to all our old haunts. We walked all over campus and then all down Court Street. Nearing the end of Court Street is where The Dugout used to be. I was hoping that no matter what it was now, it was open, and I could actually propose at the exact spot where we met. Unfortunately, it was being renovated and it was all shuttered. Since it’s partially below ground level you have to go down a few steps to get in. I said let’s go down the steps and peek in. I had meant to go down on one knee but as we were peering in the door I pulled the ring out of my pocket and just blurted out, “Will you marry me?” She said, “Are you serious? Yes!”
Later she told me that she thought I was going to propose but the longer we walked all around the campus and town and I hadn’t asked her she thought maybe she was wrong. We spend the rest of the day walking around and reminiscing. That night we went to Tony’s, another regular spot from those days and sat at the table by the front window enjoying our Miller Lites by the neon light of the Tony’s sign.
As we were there, we thought about all the fun times we had, all the great friends we made, and how weird it seems that so much time has passed. I couldn’t help but think how lucky I am to have randomly met her on Court Street all those years ago. Someone so beautiful, inside and out. Someone so smart and kind. Someone who has shared her life with me since we were 19 and 20 years old. Someone I hope, if we’re fortunate enough to live that long, takes me to the ‘tongue pit’ of a Rolling Stones tribute band for my 80th birthday and a Broadway play based on Larry David’s life for my 81st.