Thirty years ago...

It all started in December of  1980.  At a happy hour at the Top of the Plaza in Rochester with friends from work.  I started a conversation with Kathie. She was Little's room mate. Little worked  with me at Sybron. Kathie was from Freedom, NY.  I was from Freedom, PA. Kathie went to high school with a friend that I worked with at RIT. We talked and we didn't see much of each other until St. Patrick's Day 1981.  On that evening a bunch of us were bar hopping and we started and ended in my apartment that was close to Monroe Avenue where the bars were. In the crowd of people was Kathie with some other guy. We had a fun evening and the only reason that this matters is that the next week the guy that was with Kathie stood her up for a date and she ended up going to a party with her friend Jean.

Also going to that party was me and a few friends from work. Since the party was BYOB we stopped at the liquor store to buy our contribution. I picked up a bottle of tequila. At the party my friend Missa started mixing me Tequila Sunrises. I was not gaging well my intake of tequila that was mixed in orange juice.  At some point midway through the evening I asked Kathie to dance. Soon after I strolled over to the drink table and discovered that I had worked my way through much of  the pint of tequila. Realizing that I was in trouble Kathie and I took a walk outside to help me sober up. (It didn't work.) Kathie and I talked and as the tequila took effect I talked allot. I also got sick on both front doors of my 75' Nova. Somewhere in the conversation Kathie and I made plans for a date the next week. Kathie offered to drive me home and, knowing that I shouldn't be driving, I accepted her offer and she drove my car with Jean following behind in her car.

Upon arriving at my apartment we couldn't find any legal parking and I wasn't in the mood to ride around looking, so I told Kathie to park in the no-parking zone on the corner. I went up to my apartment, took the covers off my water bed and put them on the floor. I thanked Jean and Kathie for getting me home, said goodnight and passed out on the floor. As a drunk I do not loose memory and I am usually fully awake as soon as become conscious. At about 6:00 am on the next day I woke up and immediately thought about my illegally parked car. I threw on some clothes and ran down to my car and, to my surprise, there was no ticket. I moved the car and got back to bed for a few more hours of napping.

Late in the morning, I called Kathie and thanked her for getting me home safe. I also re-affirmed our date for Wednesday and Kathie told me that she couldn't make it. She had a  good excuse and we rescheduled for Friday.  We had our date and soon we were a couple and of course here we are thirty years later.  I have started this web page as a Celebration of those thirty years and hope to add to it as time progresses.

In late 1982 it had become apparent to me that I was going to propose to Kathie. I just needed to find a memorable way to do so. Many things came to mind but it wasn't the Internet age and nothing seemed to be coming together. I was also casually trying to convince Kathie that eloping was a good idea. Fast forward to February 7,1983. Kathie and I decided to have dinner at a local Chinese restaurant in Rochester. I had no intension of proposing that evening but the conversation turned  marriage and I made one last stab at the eloping idea. Once again eloping wasn't floating well, so I  decided that this was the time to propose and did so, much to Kathie's surprise. At the end of our dinner we opened our fortune cookies. Kathie's said, "Hope for the best but prepare for the worst", mine said "If a true sense of worth is to be yours it must come through service", fitting advice for a couple about to enter matrimony.

We were married at St. Thomas Moore Church  on East Avenue in Rochester on September 24th 1983!

For the next two years Kathie amd I got our life together started. We finished building our first house having a good time with friends, new and old., and getting ready to start our family. And soon in Fall of 1985 Kathie and our friend Linda and Maria were all well on their way. On October 24th 1985 Michael Robert and on January 30th 1987 Rachel Rose joined the family.

Linda,  Kathie, and Maria with children!	Kathie at Disney!
	Maria and Kathie (New Years in Orlando)
Barney and Betty	Our House on Cook Lane
New Home Owners to be
X-country skiing	Toronto
	The Street where I lived
Motor Home Travel with Pat and Katie	Last MASH episode