I learned this morning that I’ve been living a lie.
And it’s the fault of those friends I blogged about earlier this week.
Turns out our friends brought my lovely wife a packet full of letters that she wrote to her friend, including letters from my wife’s first year at college. Some of those letters from our first year in college mention me. And how we met.
(Here’s comes the lie.)
I have for years (35 of them, in fact) been telling the story that we met on the first Friday of our freshman year. Say it out loud. First Friday of our freshman year. See how nicely it rolls off the tongue? First Friday of our freshman year.
Except it’s not true.
In a letter dated September 12, my lovely wife (then my lovely wife-to-be, though neither of us knew that then) told her friend that we met when my college roommate and I visited her apartment on the first Saturday of our freshman year.
You can see why I’m upset. Our whole history is based on our romantic beginning on the first Friday of our freshman year. And now, after 35 years, I learn it was a lie.
Well, a mistake.
Oh, and I’ve always gotten the date right: September 4, 1976. And, yep. That’s a Saturday.
So this coming Sunday, when we celebrate the 35th anniversary of our meeting, at least we’ll know we got the date right. And I’ll have to look for a new alliterative way to tell our story.
How about the first Saturday of September?
The nice thing is that a week after she met you, you were showing up in her letter.
ReplyDeleteJohn, you're right. That is good news. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou might need to explain to some of your readers what it means to write, send, and collect letters.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on 35 years! She's going to spend the next 35 teasing you about inaccurate memory.
MMM -- that (talking about letters) was my plan for today's post until I was hit with this shocking revelation this morning... And my lovely wife can't tease me too much: she was complicit in my error all these years!
ReplyDeleteLol! Have you seen Ira Glass's "Judgement to the Wife"? :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.clicker.com/tv/this-american-life/judgement-to-the-wife-1625974/
PS Your Dear Wife knows how dependable and helpful my laptop is. not. Please tell her it ate your guys' phone number and I would luv to call and chat with her if she could kindly resend? I have so much more I would say if this were not a Public Place...
mL: LOL! Will send you the phone number in a separate e-mail. :-)
ReplyDelete