The Countdown To Fifty

As much as the Queen and I love our children and grandkids, and we do, we decided to get outta Dodge two days ago to take a break from the action.

There's a quaint town of 10,000 on the banks of the St. Croix River across from Wisconsin and 15 miles east of Minneapolis. Her Majesty has fallen in like with a knit shop in the community so we made the trip.

Our plan was to walk the streets and visit some of the shops. When we arrived I parked our car in an outdoor lot next to the knit shop. As I stepped out of our vehicle I melted to the asphalt. The heat was torture. We made a beeline to the shop and I reveled in the air conditioners cool breezes. I could have stayed forever.

After we left I suggested we walked the main street looking in shop windows. We made it exactly one block and it was back to the car.

There was another reason for our getaway. The next day was the anniversary of our 50th year of when we became engaged. I thought it would be nice to celebrate it in one of our favorite communities. Folks, it was so damnable hot we got a motel and never left. The AC was turned up to high. Her Majesty wasn't all that hungry. I drove to a Quik Trip and bought a pizza and she got a chicken sandwich. That was our big night.

As for the engagement day that was rather non eventful. July 20, 1969 as you know was the day Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. My big question occurred at exactly 1:30 in the afternoon in my crummy little apartment above the Women's Dress shop in downtown Storm Lake, Iowa. I asked and she said yes and that's how our history began.

We immediately walked across the street to a jewelry store and the future Mrs. Hawkeye picked out her ring. Ladies and gentleman, being a coach making $7K per year allowed me to spend $100 on the ring. It had a diamond one half the size of a fireflies butt. She pretended she didn't care because we were in love.

Oh, I didn't have a hundred dollars so I had to borrow the cash from guess who.