6.21.2009

My parents, back then

My dad recently emailed this photo to my brothers and I. My mom followed it up with a little history that I thought was kind of great. Enjoy.





We met in June, when I was 19 and Jeff was still 18 and dated all summer. He went back to U. of Dayton and we kept dating when he was back in town.
The second semester of so the following school year (sophomore) Jeff got a collapsed lung from exhaustion, due to all night poker games, cigarettes, beer, classes during the day etc. I visited him when his parents got him back to St. Louis, to a hospital. We dated pretty much exclusively after that, not counting an occasional breakup for a few weeks or a month or two, when we sampled a variety of other companions.
This photo taken almost 2 years after we met. Jeff and friends had been renting a clubhouse on the Meramec river so we could drink underage. Maybe kids payed something to come to the parties there?? There was always a big crowd, lots of music and dancing and beer, an outhouse, perilous drives home after the parties. Most of us still had curfews back then, so that had to be dealt with in devious ways. Since I was one of the earlier birthdays, I really was a procurer of several six-packs of beer for a few of us. Many of the other kids had fake ID's of older siblings to help out.
The sign behind us in the photo said"Information Center". It directed you upstairs to a sort of attic-like room where we kept our coats. There may have been a mattress up there. I honestly don't think kids used it for anything more exciting, but the possibility was always there. The little clubhouse wasn't heated or cooled well, if at all, so the upstairs wouldn't have been comfortable.
I think we were dancing to that "shake a tail feather" song and having a wonderful time just when this photo was snapped. I love it. We had a lot of fun out there untill we gave it up when most of had gotten old enough to buy beer with our legal id's.
We were married after dating 4 years. Seems like yesterday sometimes. It's been an entertaining life. We're still dancing and we're still crazy about each other.

4 comments:

Garrett Parker said...

That's great.

Unknown said...

If this is the same house that my Dad always talked about (and I assume it is) then they burnt it down one drunken night when they didn't think that they would use it anymore. I can't compare any of our hijinks in high school to that. Love the old pictures.

Shannon Darling Dearest said...

this is too much. love it

Bill Jones said...

Thanks for sharing