Cinco de Mayo = 48th Anniversary

 Happy Cinco de Mayo May 5, 2026 who could even imagine this many years could go by and we’d be part of it but my life with Tess began on May 5, 1978 and Lauren was born on August 11th, 1979.

When I first woke up this morning, I was thinking oh is this today is today Cinco de Mayo? I’m thinking OK where are we gonna go for dinner and we’re gonna go to Taco Fiesta but you know then I started to think oh gosh today is my anniversary with Tess and Schorr enough. It’s been 48 years 48 years and many of those years we wondered didn’t we have an anniversary around this time? It was just funny cause it was Dawn without a lot of planning or anticipation in the last couple years I got her a diamond diamond earrings that she wanted and then a little diamond necklace. Nothing nothing big we were never big into jewelry test was very modest in that way and you know, but we would all always celebrate whether it was the same day or the day before day, after that didn’t really seem to matter much, and as I was saying, in conversation the other day, Cinco de Mayo wasn’t a thing in those days. It’s become a big thing recently in the recent years, which of course helps you remember my parents got married on Valentine’s Day. That’s pretty hard to forget anyway 48 years and the last two I’ve been alone and of course alone but now with Jennifer and it does make a difference and I’m just very, very happy to be in love with her I hesitated, but I ended up saying in love with Jennifer. It’s not the same as it was with Tess I mean that’s what I want to talk about because when Tess and I got married, we raced it down to Charleston. I remember just racing with anticipation. We did get a traffic ticket. We got a speeding ticket on our way down and he charged me $40 right there on the spot and that was like half of our anniversary money where our honeymoon money $40 was a lot of money, especially for us and you know but as angry as I was or miffed or whatever the word Is, we went on down and we went to the Charleston Inn hotel, which is still in business and you know, I remember diving into that pool and literally almost thinking like a stone because the water was so cold and I wasn’t a good swimmer and I was smoking in those days and you know even that didn’t stop me. We were just madly in love and you know very very sexually active and I just remember so many things of that day but I don’t remember if that was the day on single a mile or if we actually went to Charleston in June after our second wedding we had our first wedding to make it legal because we were already living together. we had our second wedding to invite my parents and Dave and Alice were at both weddings and Barry hosted the second wedding so that was probably the one in June anyway you know Tess and I were Madeline and Love. There was a little walk around mall right across the street from us at market Square the market street was the big attraction in Charleston. We went up and down that street many times we went to Kilwins the candy making place which was so special we got scented oil at one of the shops and we were big on that using scented oil as part of our lovemaking and we went to a restaurant called the icebox which was literally made out of an ice box. I guess we had an icebox door and that was great and you could get a drink. You can get a beer on Sunday and then the word was you know that Charleston was its own state and Charleston was just a beautiful place. We went there many many times over the years because eventually Lauren went to school and MSC and that gave us a reason to go down there a lot. I haven’t been down there since since Lauren graduated. I don’t know if I’ll ever go there with Jennifer. The irony of the difference in our relationships is I literally talked to Jennifer the other day. I wanted to lie down with her in bed and she followed me into what was Teis bedroom downstairs with without hesitation held my hand we walked in. I said come on let’s slide out and we did and you know I said to her, I want to make love to you, but without having sex and what I meant by that was I want to love her as much as I feel in my heart, but I just don’t feel the same need or desire to have physical sex like I did 47 years ago which I guess only makes sense 48 years ago anyway Jennifer just texted me. I think I’m then I’m re-engaged with my life as it is right now as I said, I’ve been filled with romance and love through most of my life. I’ve been very very fortunate. I feel like I’m much more mature now much more able to give although those days for our honeymoon in Charleston were no doubt the happiest days of my life at that time.

It’s just a funny a weird experience because you know two years ago on April 18 that was the saddest day of my life, and I said that in the service that we had it truly was the saddest day of my life, losing test and there are times when I think back and miss her miss us miss the wife we had and it’s not every day anymore but it’s very real when it happens.