In August 1980, Arlene, a colleague of mine at a pharmaceutical company, asked if I’d like to meet her sister-in-law who lived nearby me in Queens. I felt I had nothing to lose and phoned Karen and made a date. We went to an ice dancing show at the Nassau Coliseum. After the date, we went back to her apartment and talked. I noted a knick-knack with the zodiac sign of Taurus. She said her birthday was April 22 while mine was April 21, but six years apart. I never heard the end of that in all the years that I knew her. I phoned her for a second date which I think was a movie. We found out that we liked oldies music, especially the Beatles. I didn’t bring up Bob Dylan at that time. After that, she invited me to her house to listen to her Beatles records. We were also into oldies radio and listened to WYNY and WCBS-FM. She was also a big fan of the Mets.
The relationship grew, but I was always afraid that marriage will kill all the fun. In October 1982 we became engaged. It must have been the worst proposal as I told her a few days before that I got the ring and that I will propose on Saturday night.
We were married on October 16, 1983, at the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation. For our first year we lived on 99th Street in Rego Park. A year later her father remarried and moved to the Bronx and later to Florida. We then moved into the co-op she co-owned with her father in the Mitchell_Linden section of Flushing. We have lived there ever since.
After 4 years of marriage, we thought it was time to start a family. Lee was born in March 1988. Having a child is a wonderful thing, but also creates stress. As Lee got older we realized he was developmentally disabled and was in special education programs. We always did the best for him. He developed a taste for oldies music and Bob Dylan. In April 1997 we took Lee to his first Bob Dylan concert at William Patterson University in Wayne, NJ. He has gone to every Dylan concert since that time.
The highlights of our marriage were our baseball/music vacations. In 2006, 2007, and 2010 we went on Jay Buckley baseball tours. We flew to Chicago and took a bus to visit several ballparks in the Midwest. At a game in Milwaukee Karen got a foul ball that landed in her seat.
Here are some of the vacations we took:
1998, 2008 – Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Cleveland Indians
2003 – Memphis to visit Graceland. We also took in a Memphis Redbirds Game
2005 – San Francisco to see the Giants and Oakland A’s
2011 – Southern California to see L.A. Dodgers, Angels, and several museums
2012 – Baltimore to see the Orioles at Camden Yards
2013 – Atlanta to see the Braves and several museums
2004, 2014 – Nashville to visit the Grand Ole Opry, Johnny Cash Museum and a Nashville Sounds Game
2016 – Denver to see the Colorado Rockies
2017 – Houston to see the Astros at Minute Maid Park
2018 – Phoenix to see the Arizona Diamondbacks and several museums.
2019 – Seattle to see the Mariners, Space Needle and other attraction
Our favorite activity at home which is watching Quiz Shows on TV. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune are our favorites, but we also watch GSN and the Buzzer Network.
I’ll conclude be saying that the Beatles’ music was featured at our wedding. Karen picked the wedding song that was Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.
