It is
now summer of 2000 I have a college degree and no job. I have been interviewing frequently for a job
teaching high school Agriculture. I have
had several great interviews that I left feeling like that would be my next
job, but then a rejection letter or sometimes a terrible answering machine
message came. I interviewed at what was
probably my last option and the FFA alumni and principal were both positive
through the interview. I had just walked
through the door at my parent’s home after the drive back from the interview
and there was already an answering machine message. The message said something like this, we
thought the interview went well, the alumni really enjoyed meeting you and
appreciated your enthusiasm and ideas BUT we hired someone who graduated from
here. Devastated I went to the field to
ride in the combine with my dad, where he was harvesting wheat. Not because he would have some piece of great
advice, but more because he would say nothing and we could ride there together
with nothing to say. There was really nothing to say. I’ve wanted to teach Agriculture since I was
a freshman in high school and I wanted to live in Perry County and now that
dream was over. I really didn’t need to
analyze that, so a combine ride with my dad was a logical choice.
By this
time I also was working a summer position at the Perry County Courthouse doing
mass mailings to people who had not paid traffic tickets and learning a lot
about the local government. The other
thing about working at the local courthouse is that the people that work there
are a close family and great people. It
was an awesome summer job. Because the
office that I worked in dealt with traffic violations and the sheriff’s office
was right across the ally, several deputies would come into the office. By mid-summer the girls I worked with had
talked me in to going on a date with one of the deputies. He was a nice guy, he was nice looking and he
had a nice job. I agreed although I knew
that we really had nothing in common. As
he pulled into my parent’s driveway in a sports car (really no truck), I knew
instantly that this was not going to be my prince. Oh well he is a nice guy. I jumped into the car and we headed towards a
local town thirty minutes away to get something to eat. As he drove up the road
we had a nice conversation, but I was really surprised for someone who drove so
much as a deputy, he spent a lot of time driving all over the road. It really made me nervous and I had rode with
a lot of people, but this was not good.
We finally arrived at Applebee’s and by half way through dinner the
conversation was dead. He asked if I was
interested in going to the movies. I
said had to work in the morning and that I had better get home. On the way home he asked if this house next
to my parent’s house was the right one.
I smiled and said “no, it’s the next one”. Many people had made that mistake. But then he said “oh yea it’s the one with
the silos”. I am thinking oh he didn’t
just say that, those aren’t silos they are grain bins. I told him thanks for a nice evening and
immediately went to the house to call Mary.
I called her to tell her how nice the date was and that I couldn’t
possibly date someone who didn’t know the difference between a grain bin and a
silo. I mean really. She laughed because she knew I was insanely
weird but that would be my last date with him.
I
finally landed a job at the Perry County Learning Center in the southern part
of the county teaching Science. I was sold the job during the interview as a
place where students that were struggling at their local schools in the county
would be placed. I was going to have the opportunity to make the difference in
the lives of youth. It was actually youth that had been expelled from their public
school, so I would actually just practice disciplining youth with different
methods they never taught us at The Ohio State University. (more about this
later)
Mary and
I spent a lot of the summer driving around and one night we were in Amanda
which is really 30 minutes from where we live.
But this is still a time in our lives where gas was cheap and we could
afford to aimlessly drive around. We
ended up at one of Jake’s friend’s house.
Actually his name is Greiner and he worked at cemetery and was able to
live there. So there we were on a warm
summer evening talking in the cemetery. Greiner
was telling us how Jake had been dumped and I was feeling sorry for myself
because I had been dumped. Then Greiner
says and you and Jake should just go out.
He pointed out how much we had in common. Which I smiled, because I already knew that
from that wonderful summer night when I had met him. I just said you know he is two and a half
years younger than me. Mary and Greiner
both pointed out that I was 21 and Jake was 19 and that really wasn’t that big
of a deal. Within the week Jake was
calling and we were talking like it hadn’t been three years. It was now late July and time for the Perry
County Fair, the local event of the year.
I had celebrated a lot of birthday’s there and spent most of my summers
as a youth preparing for the Perry County Fair.
I even had my first crush at the Perry County Fair, probably in the late
80’s. It was now Saturday night the biggest night at the fair. It was tractor pull night. Jake and his friends were coming over for the
tractor pull. Jake and I spent most of
the evening talking and hanging out with our friends. It was late in the evening and Jake and I
found ourselves alone for the first time and it was a beautiful hot summer
evening really much like that first night I met him. I wanted to remember this night forever
because this was our first date (kinda).
This would also be the moment of our first kiss.
The following Monday would be my 22nd
birthday. So of course I would want to
go to my favorite restaurant the Pizza Cottage at Buckeye Lake. Jackie and her boyfriend Jason, Jake and
Greiner, Mary and I would all meet at Jackie’s to go to the Pizza Cottage. We then headed to Weldon’s for ice cream. This would be what Jake called our first
date. We argue about this fact still
today.
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