I had just graduated high school. My friends and I weren’t interested in traditional senior celebrations of party after party with lots of drinking, so we created our own past time of “chalking.” We would drive to fellow graduates’ houses in the middle of the night and write on their driveway with sidewalk chalk. We left messages of endearment, hellos, good-byes, admiration, etc. After a week or so, we needed new people to chalk. I had the perfect person; a cute guy who worked at the local grocery store. The problem was we didn’t know anything about him. Luckily, a fellow grad worked at the grocery store’s video counter and gave us his name: Rob L. Now this was in ’94, before technology could help us out, so we looked up his last name in the phone book, got his address and used a street guide book to find out where he lived and we wrote on his driveway with chalk. This continued all summer long.
Each week we’d go into the store dropping hints of who was doing this to his driveway. Finally, we gave a dead giveaway, by going in the store and asking for help of which aisle sidewalk chalk could be found. Rob then sent another employee, who collected carts from the corrals, to find out what kind of car we drove.
Summer was winding down and we were ready for one last chalk. When we arrived at Rob’s house, there was a lot of activity going on. We decided to come back later but it was too late. Rob knew our car, spotted us, got in his car and followed us. As we were being followed, we carefully considered the safest way to stop and not put ourselves in danger (again, pre-cell phone times). We finally agreed to stop in a well-lit, busy parking lot so we had safety in numbers on our side. We got out of our cars and “officially” met each other. We retold the summer’s events from each other’s points of view and exchanged numbers. Two days later, Rob called me, and the rest as they say, is history. This year marks our 17th year as a couple. I was 17 when I met him, so I’ve been with him just as long as I had lived without him. Twelve years of marriage and two great kids later, each day is as exciting as the high-speed chase down the road on that fateful night. I always said our story would make a great John Hughes movie.
Are you bored with you partner? Stimulate your relationship.
