Happy Birthday to My Best Guy

Here is a picture of my then boyfriend/future husband and me on June 19, 1974, when we'd been "going together" for almost a year.

That night, we did something a little out of character: we got all gussied up (that's a floor-length dress I'm wearing, a hand-me-down from an aunt) and went on a fancy double-date with some friends of ours.  Normally, our dates went a little more like this: put on a nice peasant blouse and jeans (me) and a clean t-shirt and jeans (him) and meet up with the gang at the Strand or DQ.  But that night, in celebration of my boyfriend's 16th birthday, we pulled out all the stops and had a nice dinner at our favorite grown-up restaurant out by the lake (the same restaurant where he was a bus boy every summer during high school).  It was a formal affair, my friends.  It is still one of my favorite high school memories.

That guy was just the BEST BOYFRIEND EVER.  As a dreamy-eyed teenager I wrote a love poem about him--about the boy who would become the man who would become my husband.  This poem was packed away in a box, along with my disintegrating scrapbooks and other priceless bits of my girlhood memorabilia, for over 30 years.  At the time that box of treasures was unearthed (around Christmastime 2010), I had in my possession only one surviving high school scrapbook and wondered what had ever happened to all the others I knew I'd lovingly put together.  When I went through that musty box, I couldn't believe the plethora of long-forgotten souvenirs of my youth it contained.  Not just my missing scrapbooks, but many other goodies, including a poorly written (but heartfelt) ode to my boyfriend.

I know you're probably dying to hear this poetic masterpiece from 1975...so without further ado, I give you "To the Special One":

Many boys are handsome,

Of this I have no doubt.

But who could be as beautiful

As you, both in and out?

Many boys are funny,

I admit that this is true.

But who can bring such gentle mirth?

I know it's only you!

Many boys are kind, of course,

This isn't hard to guess.

But only you alone possess

That caring thoughtfulness.

Many boys are talented,

But none so much as you.

God blessed you with abilities

In all you say and do.

The great thing about blogging is that if you're laughing at me (because I'm not a poet and I don't know it), at least I can't see or hear you.

But those feelings I had for my husband back then--and I knew deep down he was the only one for me, even at 16--have only gotten stronger and stronger over the going-on-33 years of our marriage.  So on his birthday, maybe we should get all gussied up again, go out to some fancy restaurant, and celebrate the fact that we've been so incredibly blessed to be able to grow up together. Hopefully we'll get to grow old(er) together, too!

Happy Birthday to my best guy (my boyfriend forever), with love from the luckiest girl who ever lived.