Pages

Monday, June 25, 2012

First Date

by Liz Zuercher




I was fourteen, almost fifteen, when James and I had our first date.  After that we never dated anyone else.

I met James at the lake that summer when I went with my girlfriends to stay with Kate’s family in their rented cottage for a couple of weeks.  James’ family owned a place a few doors down from Kate’s and all the kids would hang out together.  We’d swim all day and in a big group we’d have campfires at night or go to the drive-in movie at Haywood Springs, the little town nearby.  Each carload of teenagers had a mom or dad driver.  They didn’t give us an inch of leeway to get into trouble in those days, and they didn’t allow any pairing off.  Kate’s mom was especially strict, and she made sure we girls knew she had her eye on us.  Being a no-nonsense, outspoken woman, she’d say,  “No one’s getting pregnant on my watch!”

I remember that Georgie was always trying to find a way to get off in the woods with Terry Metcalf, but I was too scared of Kate’s mom to try to sneak off with James.  Besides, it was all so new to me, this boy/girl thing, and I was content to be with James in the group and get to know him that way.

James was two years older than I was and he had just gotten his driver’s license.  We probably could have gone for a ride together in his dad’s Buick, but I think maybe James was uneasy about the whole thing, too, because he never even suggested it.  We were both happy the way things were, taking it slow.  We had two great weeks together with the group at the lake and then didn’t see each other until right before school started up again.

James’ family came back from the lake in late August and he came over to my house one afternoon.  We sat on the porch swing and talked for two hours while I babysat my little brothers and sisters.  When my parents came home, they met James and I could see they were sizing him up.  They seemed to approve of what they saw.  And why wouldn’t they?

James was polite and well spoken and it didn’t hurt that he was good-looking.  He was tall and muscular, but in a wiry way, like the cross county runner he was.  He seemed more mature and self-possessed than his years.  But the way his sandy hair sometimes flopped down onto his forehead made him a teenage boy again.  He’d push it back into place with a quick flick of his fingers and he’d be back to mature put-together James.  He was still doing the same thing forty years later, and it always made my heart melt.

We looked like a couple who belonged together right from the start, as if we’d both just come from Germany with our blond hair and blue eyes, straight noses and strong chins.  We could have been mistaken for brother and sister, like those old married couples that grow to look like each other after decades of marriage.  With James and me as teenagers it was like we’d already lived those years together and were already melding into one.

Louie insisted James and I had been together in a previous lifetime and that’s why we were so perfectly matched, why we clicked so quickly without any of the drama most teenage couples go through.  Maybe she’s right.  I do know there was an instant connection between us and once we met each other there was never anyone else for either of us.

That August afternoon on the porch was the first of many.  Every afternoon James would come over and we’d sit in the swing together.  Finally, after a few weeks of that James got up the nerve to ask me out on a proper date.  Since he’d become such a fixture at our house, my parents said it was okay, but they didn’t want him driving us anywhere. 

So James came on foot to pick me up on that Saturday, and as we walked downtown to the movie theater, he took my hand.  We ate popcorn and drank cokes and he put his arm around me during the movie.  We walked back home holding hands and when we got back to my house, we sat on the swing in the dim glow of the porch light.  He kissed me full on the lips for the first time.  We sat close and talked, swinging back and forth together until someone inside flicked the porch light off and on.  One more kiss at the front door sealed the perfect first date for James and me.  It wasn’t a fancy date, but it was just right for us.

Sometimes in these months since James passed away, I go out on the porch and sit in the swing trying to feel close to him.  Louie tells me he’s swinging with me, but I don’t feel it.  I think he’s on his way to the next place in time where we will discover each other all over again.  I hope he waits for me there.

    

Monday, June 11, 2012

Paper!!! I don't need no stinkin' paper!!!


The following article won me first place in Fujitsu's ScanSnap contest in which I wrote about how I used my scanner. Here's the entry which will hopefully amuse you and maybe you'll even chose to get a ScanSnap! They are NOT paying me to say this or even publish this piece, but it HAS made a wonderful difference in my life!


          Both of my parents passed away within the last three years. My father saved, I think, every piece of paper he ever got. There were five file cabinets filled with everything from memorabilia and research information on a myriad of topics, to tax returns to business documents, to bank statements, to receipts.
          I knew, as trustee and daughter that I had to do something. I could not take home file cabinets filled with documents. I knew I could probably throw away a few file cabinets worth, but frankly, I was nervous. I had no idea how I was going to deal with all the papers, and many of them I knew were really important.
          As I tried to think about how to deal with this paper storm, I remembered my accountant who scans everything. When I go in to do my taxes, I watch him put piles of different sized papers in his scanner and within seconds they are scanned in and he hands me back my originals. I had never used a scanner but wondered if that would be an option for me. I called and talked to him and his secretary and started to search for a ScanSnap immediately.
          I ordered it overnight because I wanted to get started quickly. I had two weeks to go through every piece of paper that my sisters and I had not thrown away (about 2 1/2 file cabinets filled left), turn them into PDFs and call the shredding company (they wound up shredding over 400 pounds of documents). I now have 2,472 documents in "Mom and Dad's Electronic Filing Cabinet." Most of these I may never need, but if I do I have them organized as if they were in a paper file cabinet and can find whatever I want. I wound up taking home less than one banker's box of documents - deeds and important original contracts and such that I thought were important to keep.
          I also had all of my parents’ photos, and when I realized that I could scan in photographs I really had a party. I scanned in all the photos (many hundreds) that I thought others would want and will be distributing discs of photos to family members when I have the time to sort them further!
          I then decided that the trust should buy my sisters scanners because we are all paper monsters, and so I did that. So far I've spent time with one sister helping her get started with her de-papering process which I hear is still going well.
          But that is not even the best part of this story. When I got home, I decided to go through my own documents. To date have scanned in nearly 2,000 of my own documents, shredding many many pounds of paper, AND while I was going through figuring out which documents to scan, which I needed to keep in paper form (and by the way, I even scan them in so I have everything electronic), and which could be tossed, I found out that my home, which I had refinanced five years ago, had NOT been put back into my trust! So thanks to my ScanSnap, if something happens to me, my estate will be in order and my daughter will not have to go through the lovely process of probate trying to prove that my intent was to put my house into the trust!
          By the way, my parent's banker loves me because every time she asks if I have something, I find it electronically and e-mail it over to her - she's amazed at how organized and efficient I am and I love to hear that because that's never been something I've been praised for before.
          My life is so much neater and easier and more organized because of my ScanSnap. One of my most prized possessions!