Eidectic Fugue - Part six

This chapter/part/section was going to be on the infamous snow day of 1967 when a large contingent of Salem's youth took over the Fugue but instead I choose to focus on meeting Karen, my wife.

Had I not been part of opening the shop and had i not setup a section of a display case for local artists, who knows what would have happened. Things happen in life, pivotal things, and sometimes you don't even know they happened, much less planned for them, until years later. Things like meeting your spouse for the first time.

The week the shop opened was big. The biggest week of my life. I so remember it, perhaps not accurately, but still the memory is strong. You know how you remember things the way you want and then someone else who was there says it happened this other way? That is what it was like. I remember clearly what Karen wore that first time - cowboy boots, jeans, Peacoat, long braids, aviator glasses and how she so patiently asked if she could sell her items in my shop. She had some rocks she had gathered from a nearby creek, dried and polished them and painted peace symbols on the. They were beautiful and unique - just what we wanted in the display case. I (in a fit of rushed conversation) asked if she had made them or acquired them from somewhere (like peace symbols painted on rocks were available) and she said it was her work. In the display case they went, along with a few other items that had appeared. A piece of paper was placed by the rocks, marking the price and if they sold, the shop got 10% of the sale price(usually). And an entry was made in a notebook tablet about what sold for whom for how much, if and when they sold. I still have one of those rocks in a drawer near my bed - it is still beautiful and full of wonder.

So it began. She came back to the store many times and often took care of the store when I drove ten miles to my parent's house for dinner. Eventually she came to dinner too and we had dates and everything. It was love. Yup!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad