So here's another batch of memories as I think of our upcoming Anniversary.
We didn't "date" in the traditional way. We met on the band bus (Read that story) when I was 16 and he was 17 years old. From that night on, we were together. We didn't date others and we didn't go on traditional Friday or Saturday night dates. From the moment we met, music was part of our lives. I can't play any instrument and found myself immersed completely in music! He was not only in the Marching Band, but also in the FFA Band, already attending a college band class and played in a band on Friday and Saturday nights. Looking back, it seems unbelievable how much we did. There was marching band. We had practices, ball games and then the competitions. As an aide, I had to be there anytime the band was assembled. We worked hard and it paid off. The band scored all 1's (the best score possible) at every competition and got best in class.
There was the FFA band. They rocked all our assemblies and also went to competitions. For assemblies they played some of the hit songs of the day.... Georgia Satellites, Poison and several other top groups. Wipe Out was super popular because of the kickin' drum solo. To this day, Big Guy can barely stand the song. They also had a great year in competition, winning District, Regional and even State. They didn't get to go compete in Nationals because they didn't have the money to cover the expenses to get there.
There was the college music class he was taking while still in high school. We would leave school before the final bell to make it to the college in time. Some days it was pretty crazy. He drove a little red 1980 Chevy Chevette..... At least a few times a week he had to bring hi drums to school with him. We would get them out, set them up in the band room, if there was an assembly, we would break them down and carry them across the road to the Gym and set them back up. When the assembly was over we would have to hurry and break them down again and get them crammed back into the car. Then rush to the college so he could make it to that class on time.....
Then there was the Friday and Saturday night "gig".... these were his "paying gigs"! :) The band played old (I mean REALLY OLD. As in the-artist-died-decades-ago OLD!) country songs and people came to dance.... He was already doing this every weekend when I met him, so I didn't question it. I just went along with him. For a while, there was quite a crowd of younger people that would come. The knew of Big Guy from school and so of course would request Wipe Out... :/ He would play for a few hours each night and it gave us gas and spending money for the week.
On average we put about 300 - 400 miles per week on the Chevette! Thank goodness gas was much cheaper! We kept quarters in the center console because we could put $0.50 or $1.00 worth of gas in the tank! I loved that car! So many memories! Getting where we needed to go, going where we wanted to. We went to prom in that car. Both times! After one of the proms, he drove us out to a spot in wildlife preserve an hour away so we could watch the sun come up over the water.... I fell asleep (probably snored!) and he just let me sleep. I woke up to see the sun was already up and fishermen were all around getting to their spots on the water. When my parents moved from the rural area to town, he still came and picked me up from school nearly everyday in that Chevette. We worked on that car together. I helped him pull the engine out and put it back in (several times!) We literally drove it to death. When we finally had to park it, it was so bittersweet and sad! There was so much that happened in those five years! We spent so much time together that when he was involved in a bad auto accident, everyone assumed I was with him and when his grandmother called my house to let me mom know about the accident, she was shocked that I answered the phone! There's the time my family traveled back to Washington state for an Uncle's funeral. We were supposed to be gone one week, but my sister got sick and put in the hospital while we were there and it ended up being a little over two weeks before we made it back. I got home to find that Big Guy had been going and sitting at our house nearly every evening starting with the day we had been expected to come back. (No cell phones or internet back then!). When we did finally make it home he greeted me with a box of clothes and things that I had put on lay-a-way before we left. He had paid it off for me as a surprise! There was the fish tank he BUILT for me... I had caught a little Brim in a creek that ran beside his Moma's house. I had lined and old wheelbarrow with a waterbed liner that had gotten a leak and put the fish in it. I had it there for several months so he decided to build me a tank for my Christmas present. One morning he looked out the window and noticed that there was a layer of ice in the wheelbarrow! He ran out and used his fist to punch a hole in the ice and found the fish laying on the bottom not moving. He grabbed it and ran inside to the kitchen sink and ran room temp water over and into my fish. Within a moment or so the fish started wiggling again! :0 So Christmas came and he presented me with an absolutely beautiful fish tank! It wasn't quite finished but it was beautiful! After the ice incident, we had moved the fish indoors in a small Igloo cooler. One night we left to go to one of his weekend "gigs", leaving the lid of the cooler open only a finger width wide. When we returned a few hours later, his sister had went to a friends house and locked the doors. We didn't have our key so he had to run up the road to get the key from her. As we were trying to get the door open we noticed the stupid fish had manged to jump out of the tiny opening at the top of the cooler ..... and landed in the unfinished fish tank that was on the floor! Yeah, he died. Big Guy still finished the tank and we put some nice normal neons, goldfish and algae eaters in it. I say normal.. they were the fancy gold fish that have a tri-fin tail. One of them lived for several years and got very large. The bigger he got, he liked to swim upside down. He would to float to the top when I walked up to the tank and roll over so I could rub his tummy. I bring out the weird! :)
We didn't "date" in the traditional way. We met on the band bus (Read that story) when I was 16 and he was 17 years old. From that night on, we were together. We didn't date others and we didn't go on traditional Friday or Saturday night dates. From the moment we met, music was part of our lives. I can't play any instrument and found myself immersed completely in music! He was not only in the Marching Band, but also in the FFA Band, already attending a college band class and played in a band on Friday and Saturday nights. Looking back, it seems unbelievable how much we did. There was marching band. We had practices, ball games and then the competitions. As an aide, I had to be there anytime the band was assembled. We worked hard and it paid off. The band scored all 1's (the best score possible) at every competition and got best in class.
There was the FFA band. They rocked all our assemblies and also went to competitions. For assemblies they played some of the hit songs of the day.... Georgia Satellites, Poison and several other top groups. Wipe Out was super popular because of the kickin' drum solo. To this day, Big Guy can barely stand the song. They also had a great year in competition, winning District, Regional and even State. They didn't get to go compete in Nationals because they didn't have the money to cover the expenses to get there.
There was the college music class he was taking while still in high school. We would leave school before the final bell to make it to the college in time. Some days it was pretty crazy. He drove a little red 1980 Chevy Chevette..... At least a few times a week he had to bring hi drums to school with him. We would get them out, set them up in the band room, if there was an assembly, we would break them down and carry them across the road to the Gym and set them back up. When the assembly was over we would have to hurry and break them down again and get them crammed back into the car. Then rush to the college so he could make it to that class on time.....
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| Not THE Chevette, but this is similar to what Big Guy had |
On average we put about 300 - 400 miles per week on the Chevette! Thank goodness gas was much cheaper! We kept quarters in the center console because we could put $0.50 or $1.00 worth of gas in the tank! I loved that car! So many memories! Getting where we needed to go, going where we wanted to. We went to prom in that car. Both times! After one of the proms, he drove us out to a spot in wildlife preserve an hour away so we could watch the sun come up over the water.... I fell asleep (probably snored!) and he just let me sleep. I woke up to see the sun was already up and fishermen were all around getting to their spots on the water. When my parents moved from the rural area to town, he still came and picked me up from school nearly everyday in that Chevette. We worked on that car together. I helped him pull the engine out and put it back in (several times!) We literally drove it to death. When we finally had to park it, it was so bittersweet and sad! There was so much that happened in those five years! We spent so much time together that when he was involved in a bad auto accident, everyone assumed I was with him and when his grandmother called my house to let me mom know about the accident, she was shocked that I answered the phone! There's the time my family traveled back to Washington state for an Uncle's funeral. We were supposed to be gone one week, but my sister got sick and put in the hospital while we were there and it ended up being a little over two weeks before we made it back. I got home to find that Big Guy had been going and sitting at our house nearly every evening starting with the day we had been expected to come back. (No cell phones or internet back then!). When we did finally make it home he greeted me with a box of clothes and things that I had put on lay-a-way before we left. He had paid it off for me as a surprise! There was the fish tank he BUILT for me... I had caught a little Brim in a creek that ran beside his Moma's house. I had lined and old wheelbarrow with a waterbed liner that had gotten a leak and put the fish in it. I had it there for several months so he decided to build me a tank for my Christmas present. One morning he looked out the window and noticed that there was a layer of ice in the wheelbarrow! He ran out and used his fist to punch a hole in the ice and found the fish laying on the bottom not moving. He grabbed it and ran inside to the kitchen sink and ran room temp water over and into my fish. Within a moment or so the fish started wiggling again! :0 So Christmas came and he presented me with an absolutely beautiful fish tank! It wasn't quite finished but it was beautiful! After the ice incident, we had moved the fish indoors in a small Igloo cooler. One night we left to go to one of his weekend "gigs", leaving the lid of the cooler open only a finger width wide. When we returned a few hours later, his sister had went to a friends house and locked the doors. We didn't have our key so he had to run up the road to get the key from her. As we were trying to get the door open we noticed the stupid fish had manged to jump out of the tiny opening at the top of the cooler ..... and landed in the unfinished fish tank that was on the floor! Yeah, he died. Big Guy still finished the tank and we put some nice normal neons, goldfish and algae eaters in it. I say normal.. they were the fancy gold fish that have a tri-fin tail. One of them lived for several years and got very large. The bigger he got, he liked to swim upside down. He would to float to the top when I walked up to the tank and roll over so I could rub his tummy. I bring out the weird! :)
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