Old School Love

He remembered her from elementary school, she was a year younger, he wasn't shocked how pretty she still was, but he was however shocked to see her getting on his bus the first day of school his junior year. She stood there looking for a seat, he cleared his throat and said to the pretty blonde girl, "you can sit with me". As she took the seat beside the boy she remembered from elementary school, her first thought was wow you have really changed. However what came out of her mouth was "you are not as fat as you use to be". He replied with a Thank you, and a laugh. They talked that day and the days that follow on the bus to school and back home again each day. As time went on she began to wonder if he was just going to talk about football and how he liked Ford truck forever, or was he going to actually ask her out. Each Monday as he talked about last nights football game he said to himself this is the week I am asking the pretty little blonde out. Finally one day she turns to him in the middle of a play by play of the last Green Bay Packers win and said to him, so we actually going out on a date or what? I already as my Dad and he said yes, so what do you say?

The boy on the bus said yes to the date, and yes to almost everything since that day. He said yes to the payments for the ring and yes to the overtime he had to work to pay for the ring, that would forever change his world. If she wanted to cook meatloaf and mashed potatoes every Monday then he said yes, cause he liked to watch her cooking in the kitchen,

The pretty blonde on the bus also said yes to many things as time went on. Most importantly she said yes the day he got on his knee in her Daddy's cow pasture and ask her to marry him. He had a tiny ring to give her that day, but she didn't care, she could only see the rest of her life in his eyes. She said yes to things like watching Jeremiah Johnson for the 200th time, just because that made the boy from the bus smile that pretty smile.

They were married on a cold day in November in her parents living room. They didn't have much to start out with, they used towels as their curtains and shut off all but three rooms in the home to safe on heating and cooling cost. But they didn't care, they were in love and they were happy, and they were exactly where they belonged, beside each other. They got jobs at the same company and rode to and from work together every day for more than forty years. He liked to hear old country, she liked to listen to hair bands, they both took turns hitting the dial to find their music. But some days they drove home without the radio, and just talked about their day, they talked about their future plans, and they talked about the day on the bus when she sit down beside him and made him smile.

They saved their money, took a few trips here and there to see different places, but mostly they stayed home. They saved their money and used it to make their house a home. As time went on, they opened up those closed off rooms and filled them with kids and dogs, and cats, and love. They painted their walls when she got sick of seeing the same colors. They built on to the back deck when he wanted a new place that was out of the sun to grill his steaks. About twenty years into their relationship and about five hundred Green Bay Packers Football games a song was released that summed up their relationship. The song by the pretty little blondes favorite group Alabama had lyrics that said things like "Ain't it wonderful to know, all we ever need is two of us, She and I", which she felt was the exact story of their lives. Their friends and family told them the song had to be written just for them, as they were always together and lived their own lives, side-by-side.

During those years they worked side by side, the world changed, and they took part in some of the trends. They bought CD players so they could dance to whatever song they wanted on a Friday night. They bought a satellite dish so they could spend their Sundays sitting on he couch watching Footballs games. They bought Billy Bass, just because it was in the clearance section on random Wednesday when they were shopping at Sears. But the one thing that didn't change was their love and admiration for the pretty blonde hair and the pretty smile that connected them, on that rainy August day on the public school bus.

On the eve of their 50th wedding anniversary he once again said yes when she said to him that she wanted to go out and eat for their anniversary. She said yes when he said he wanted to buy a lotto ticket again, because "you just never know honey", And, they both said yes when the waitress ask if they would do it all again. They said yes without even thinking. They would say yes a thousand times over if given the chance to sit beside each other on the bus. They would say yes to be given a chance to go back in time and drive back and forth to work side by side, in that old Ford,. And now they are saying yes to holding hands on the front porch each night while listening to the crickets and streams. They would say yes to love and to each other, now and forever more.