I keep thinking about downloading Bob Dylan’s 1974 LP, Planet Waves from iTunes. With all the snow we’ve had lately, I’ve had the song, ‘On a Night Like This,’ from that collection, echoing in my brain. I remember buying and listening repeatedly to the vinyl release when it came out back then, about the same time I fell in love with my wife, snow and ice all around. Sigh.
Our first date was on January 11, 1974. It was cold and icy. I wore plaid bell bottoms and black high heeled shoes, the style of the time for men. I could hardly walk on the ice and Ann practically propped me up as we made our way across her apartment’s parking lot to my car.
We saw The Way We Were. I dared to put my arm around her as we watched the movie. Ann chuckled at my subtlety.
I lost my wallet in the theater and only discovered it after we had gone to McDonald’s for a fast food snack. I reached for my wallet to pay for our feast and discovered it wasn’t there. Ann paid.
We went back to the theater and the management let me in to find the wallet. It was on the floor under the seat I’d used during the movie. Crisis averted. But I don’t think that even losing my wallet could have ruined the evening.
We went back to Ann’s place and, sitting on her couch, we talked for hours, two people who had known each other since middle school days but only become friends in the past year, now falling in love.
When I left, we kissed and I was sure I knew.
A week later, she was at my folks’ house, where she met my Great Uncle Martin and his wife, Nina. I walked out with the two of them when they went to their car to leave, just to get a feel for their reaction, I guess. Or to bask in the glory of having snagged such a wonderful girl, maybe.
I didn’t say anything. My uncle just looked at me, half a smirk on his face. “Well?” he said. “I’m gonna marry that girl,” I told him. He was pleased.
It was a month-and-a-half later before I let it slip to Ann that I hoped to marry her.
We were married August 2, 1974.
Planet Waves (along with Band on the Run, released in 1973 and an album I also loved and actually loaned to Ann, a clear indication that I loved her because I never let anybody touch my records) always makes me think of that winter. And winter always makes me think of Planet Waves and falling in love with my girl…still, thank God, my girl thirty-six years later.
I think I will download that album now.
“On a night like this
I can’t get any sleep,
The air is so cold outside
And the snow’s so deep.
Build a fire, throw on logs
And listen to it hiss
And let it burn, burn, burn, burn
On a night like this.”(On a Night Like This by Bob Dylan. Copyright ©1973 Ram’s Horn Music)
[All this from the guy who wrote this. I still stand by that piece. After I fell in love with Ann, I also learned to love her. We still are romantic. But we’re thankful that our love didn’t stay at that level. Instead, it grew and that is the greater blessing.]
[A version of this piece has been cross-posted at my personal blog.]