Lynn! It's such a treat to see you again! I haven't had you at my table since last fall! Thank you for your Christmas card. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a coffee and you can help me to enjoy a chocolate cheesecake.
How are the boys? They are where? Switzerland and South Africa - on vacation? They sure know how to get away from being stuck in the snow, don't they? How's that again? Their girlfriends' families paid their way? You don't say? I should be so lucky.
I really can't complain about luck in the pure sense of winning something. I won something twice that I can recall. I won a component stereo system (remember those?) back in 1980 in a radio contest and two tickets to see the play "Woman of the Year" with Lauren Bacall at the Kennedy Center in Washington when I was living in Virginia. How long ago was that? Let me see, I had just started seeing Frank a few months before, so I would guess that it was 1983.
Sure, Lynn, it was wonderful to see the play in a venue like the Opera House at the Kennedy Center. There is no other place that I have ever been that is like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It's a one-of-a-kind place. And Lauren Bacall had such a commanding stage presence and mastery of her role that it was almost like we were in the same room as she was. She was truly magnificent that night. But I have to admit that I can pick them because it was Frank who stole the show.
I have pearls that are more cultured than Frank was. He had this attitude that the opera, musical concerts, and the theater were only for snooty, rich people who had nothing better to do. When I got the tickets I asked him if he wanted to go and he shocked me by saying "yes."
It wasn't hard to get him into a suit and a nice tie and polished shoes. He looked quite handsome when he was dressed-up. I had a nice dress and heels and a warm cape to wear from the car to the theater entrance. I didn't worry too much about walking because parking was in an underground garage.
So off we went in his blue 1977 Chevrolet Nova Concourse. He was so proud of that car! He called it the "Flying Cloud" because it rode so smoothly. We did not pay any mind to the weather because it was calling for snow. He was an experienced snow driver and nothing was falling from the sky as we drove from my home in Annandale, Virginia to Northwest Washington to the Kennedy Center.
We park the car and check our wraps and all is well. Frank steps out for a smoke and comes in and we take our seats for what turned out to be a stellar performance by the entire Broadway cast! What a treat that was! Frank seemed to be enjoying the show and he comported himself like a polished veteran of many a night at the theater. I was so relieved.
Intermission takes place and they open the bar on the terrace and Frank buys us something to drink and we sip our drinks, he has another smoke, and we are ready for the second part of the play. While he was outside he took note of the weather and still no snow.
I don't know how long the second part of the play was but it went by far too quickly in my estimation. We left our seats and took our time to get our wraps, walked leisurely to the Flying Cloud, and drove out of the parking garage and onto Virginia Avenue in Northwest Washington. The road seemed sort of wet.
We went up the George Washington Parkway and across the Key Bridge and into Arlington, Virginia, on our way west to Annandale. And that's where we began to see it: freezing rain! Parked cars were coated with it! It was on the sidewalks, but the streets looked like they were just wet.
Frank decided to drive a bit faster in the hope of getting me home before everything froze, so out Columbia Pike we went, doing the legal speed limit.
By the time we got to the intersection of Columbia Pike with Old Columbia Road (that was where my house was), there was a sheet of ice on everything!
We took the turn very slowly and very wide, sort of like we were in a ballet, but that didn't keep the car from slipping to the right, towards the entrance to to the gas station, as we made the left turn. Frank moved fast and the car was again going straight down Old Columbia Road toward my house.
We agreed that it was a close call but he felt rather confident about his skill as a winter driver.
My house was about a mile down the road from the intersection, on the left. The driveway had a short but steel incline and there was a stone wall on either side of the driveway. The road was narrow with no shoulder so there was no extra room to make a left turn. I knew that getting the car in the driveway would be like threading a needle correctly - on the first try!
Frank had this all figured out. He drove slowly and deliberately down the right-hand lane of the road. At a point that he judged to be correct, he took the car out-of-gear and coasted toward the place where he would start the left turn. Sure enough, he made the left turn and all was well until...the front of the car started to slide to the right and go toward the stone wall, by way of the big ditch between the road and the wall!
I was sure that the car was headed for the ditch when Frank put it in gear and revved the engine and it came flying out of the ditch and back on the road. We missed a wreck by about a foot.
As we drove around the block, I told him to park the car at the gas station, and that we could walk down the house from there. He went along with that.
When we got to the gas station there was but one space left: on an incline next to the building, between the washroom door and a light post. We pulled in there and slowly left the car. I bought all of my gas at that station so I was sure that they wouldn't mind Frank's car there until morning.
We were about 30 meters away from the car when I looked back and almost died at what I saw. There was Frank's beloved Flying Cloud, wheels still, parking brake on, moving sideways on the frozen pavement, sliding down the incline and right into the light pole! Frank yelled, "Oh shit!" so loudly that porch lights came on! The driver's side door of his beautiful blue car came to rest up against the light pole and the pole left a huge dent in its door. It was ruined! We had made it all that way on the ice and missed everything that was in our way only to have the car stopped safely in the gas station lot and slide into a light pole! What the hell kind of shit is that?
I didn't complain about my frozen feet as we walked to my house, nor did I feel badly about pouring Frank a good, stiff drink. I had one myself. And he didn't have to ask about staying for the night. I opened the sofa bed for him and put another log into the wood stove.
How are the boys? They are where? Switzerland and South Africa - on vacation? They sure know how to get away from being stuck in the snow, don't they? How's that again? Their girlfriends' families paid their way? You don't say? I should be so lucky.
I really can't complain about luck in the pure sense of winning something. I won something twice that I can recall. I won a component stereo system (remember those?) back in 1980 in a radio contest and two tickets to see the play "Woman of the Year" with Lauren Bacall at the Kennedy Center in Washington when I was living in Virginia. How long ago was that? Let me see, I had just started seeing Frank a few months before, so I would guess that it was 1983.
Sure, Lynn, it was wonderful to see the play in a venue like the Opera House at the Kennedy Center. There is no other place that I have ever been that is like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It's a one-of-a-kind place. And Lauren Bacall had such a commanding stage presence and mastery of her role that it was almost like we were in the same room as she was. She was truly magnificent that night. But I have to admit that I can pick them because it was Frank who stole the show.
I have pearls that are more cultured than Frank was. He had this attitude that the opera, musical concerts, and the theater were only for snooty, rich people who had nothing better to do. When I got the tickets I asked him if he wanted to go and he shocked me by saying "yes."
It wasn't hard to get him into a suit and a nice tie and polished shoes. He looked quite handsome when he was dressed-up. I had a nice dress and heels and a warm cape to wear from the car to the theater entrance. I didn't worry too much about walking because parking was in an underground garage.
So off we went in his blue 1977 Chevrolet Nova Concourse. He was so proud of that car! He called it the "Flying Cloud" because it rode so smoothly. We did not pay any mind to the weather because it was calling for snow. He was an experienced snow driver and nothing was falling from the sky as we drove from my home in Annandale, Virginia to Northwest Washington to the Kennedy Center.
We park the car and check our wraps and all is well. Frank steps out for a smoke and comes in and we take our seats for what turned out to be a stellar performance by the entire Broadway cast! What a treat that was! Frank seemed to be enjoying the show and he comported himself like a polished veteran of many a night at the theater. I was so relieved.
Intermission takes place and they open the bar on the terrace and Frank buys us something to drink and we sip our drinks, he has another smoke, and we are ready for the second part of the play. While he was outside he took note of the weather and still no snow.
I don't know how long the second part of the play was but it went by far too quickly in my estimation. We left our seats and took our time to get our wraps, walked leisurely to the Flying Cloud, and drove out of the parking garage and onto Virginia Avenue in Northwest Washington. The road seemed sort of wet.
We went up the George Washington Parkway and across the Key Bridge and into Arlington, Virginia, on our way west to Annandale. And that's where we began to see it: freezing rain! Parked cars were coated with it! It was on the sidewalks, but the streets looked like they were just wet.
Frank decided to drive a bit faster in the hope of getting me home before everything froze, so out Columbia Pike we went, doing the legal speed limit.
By the time we got to the intersection of Columbia Pike with Old Columbia Road (that was where my house was), there was a sheet of ice on everything!
We took the turn very slowly and very wide, sort of like we were in a ballet, but that didn't keep the car from slipping to the right, towards the entrance to to the gas station, as we made the left turn. Frank moved fast and the car was again going straight down Old Columbia Road toward my house.
We agreed that it was a close call but he felt rather confident about his skill as a winter driver.
My house was about a mile down the road from the intersection, on the left. The driveway had a short but steel incline and there was a stone wall on either side of the driveway. The road was narrow with no shoulder so there was no extra room to make a left turn. I knew that getting the car in the driveway would be like threading a needle correctly - on the first try!
Frank had this all figured out. He drove slowly and deliberately down the right-hand lane of the road. At a point that he judged to be correct, he took the car out-of-gear and coasted toward the place where he would start the left turn. Sure enough, he made the left turn and all was well until...the front of the car started to slide to the right and go toward the stone wall, by way of the big ditch between the road and the wall!
I was sure that the car was headed for the ditch when Frank put it in gear and revved the engine and it came flying out of the ditch and back on the road. We missed a wreck by about a foot.
As we drove around the block, I told him to park the car at the gas station, and that we could walk down the house from there. He went along with that.
When we got to the gas station there was but one space left: on an incline next to the building, between the washroom door and a light post. We pulled in there and slowly left the car. I bought all of my gas at that station so I was sure that they wouldn't mind Frank's car there until morning.
We were about 30 meters away from the car when I looked back and almost died at what I saw. There was Frank's beloved Flying Cloud, wheels still, parking brake on, moving sideways on the frozen pavement, sliding down the incline and right into the light pole! Frank yelled, "Oh shit!" so loudly that porch lights came on! The driver's side door of his beautiful blue car came to rest up against the light pole and the pole left a huge dent in its door. It was ruined! We had made it all that way on the ice and missed everything that was in our way only to have the car stopped safely in the gas station lot and slide into a light pole! What the hell kind of shit is that?
I didn't complain about my frozen feet as we walked to my house, nor did I feel badly about pouring Frank a good, stiff drink. I had one myself. And he didn't have to ask about staying for the night. I opened the sofa bed for him and put another log into the wood stove.
✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿
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