SPECIAL LADIES IN MY LIFE

Men pursue women?  Does a mousetrap pursue a mouse?

This information would probably be more meaningful to my progeny. So, be warned.

I've been extremely lucky to have two wonderful ladies in my life.  Both were named Elaine, so I didn't have to change my tattoo after my first Elaine passed and I met my second Elaine.

I fell in love with Elaine #1 at Al Sanger's Tap Dancing Studio where she and I were students. (She was 4 and I was 7.)

I next met her during a New Bedford "Teen Stroll." After our meeting, she said to her friend, Jean: "I'm going to marry that blond boy sometime."  (She was 14 and I was 17.)

"Teen Stroll" .. What on earth is that?

To explain, let me copy an item from the New Bedford, Massachusetts Standard Times newspaper:

"CITY IN MASS. BAFFLED BY TEEN STROLL

New Bedford, Mass., July 15, 19??

Business men and law enforcement officials in this city are baffled by a teen-age phenomenon.

Every Thursday night - shopping night downtown - up to 3,000 youngsters of both sexes pour into the downtown area and promenade along the main streets.

There's no disorder. Police say youngsters just walk aimlessly up and down the sidewalks.

Nobody can figure out why they choose Thursday night for the purpose of the promenade."

Soon after Elaine #1 and I met, we began a "romance" that lasted to the year 2000, when she died during a heart-bypass operation.

In 1956, despite a few obstacles. we married.  (She was 19 and I was 22.) Before she passed, we had been happily married for almost 44 years.

A year after Elaine #1 passed, I met Elaine #2 at a SWORD meeting. This is a group of Single, Widowed Or Divorced people who need human interaction after a catastrophic event in their lives.

I'm lucky to have Elaine #2 here with me.  We've been together in a Bratkartoffelverhaeltnis for almost 20 years.

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