How I Met Your Father
3/20/2012
It wasn’t long after we had been dating or maybe I even
thought it on the drive home from our initial meeting, but I just knew that
this chance encounter was going to make a great story to tell our children on
how we met.
We were both students at the University of Northern Iowa on
our way to Iowa State in Ames for the weekend. Separate cars, separate events,
not having a clue that the other existed. UNI was considered a suitcase
college, everybody left to go home on the weekend. I didn’t, I loved being away
from home, but on this weekend in September I was going with Linda and Ev to hang
out with friends. They were seeing someone they had worked with at summer camp
and I was visiting my freshman roommate, Rita, who had transferred her sophomore
year.
Linda was driving and just a few short miles outside Ames
our car stalled. We did what every stupid young college student does, Ev and I
hitched for help, leaving Linda alone. I believe this is a don’t try this at
home moment. Whatever the dangers it worked out that our driver dropped us off
at a gas station and the owner took us in his tow truck back out to Linda.
On our way back he tells us that he has three UNI boys at
the garage waiting for him to fix their car also. They were at ISU to cover a
sports event for the UNI student paper. There was Matt and ___reporters and Ed,
the photographer.
When we arrived all six of us chatted about a variety of
topics, I can’t recall a one, but we managed to fill the time while the owner
fixed both of our cars. Before he let us all go he offered to give us a ride on
his ATV in his lot.
Ed, the photographer, chose to not ride as the five of us
took turns riding around. Instead he shot photos, which he claimed he would put
in the college paper.
So as we were about to part, they heading back to UNI and we
just beginning our weekend at ISU, Ed hands me a notebook and says would I
write my name, number and address, so he could put the story in the paper.
Now this may seem like a paradox knowing I had just hitchhiked
to the gas station, but I didn’t trust him. I saw this as a little bit of a
come on to get our numbers. My sarcasm reared its ugly head as I refused
claiming there would never be photos in the paper. Ev and Linda literally
pushed me from behind. I tried to shove the notebook for them to do so first,
but they hung back even more.
Ed tried another tactic, could he just have our numbers to
get us copies of the photos? Oh, that changes everything, but I finally
relented after being tired from being pushed on both sides.
And we went on our merry ways. I’m sure we talked about the
boys and the whole adventure, but we thought of it just as that, an adventure.
Then early the next week I was leaving the library study
carrels, seriously, I had been studying, and whom should I run into, but Ed. He
immediately brought up the photos and apologized that they would not be in the
paper, shocking me of course; it seemed like such an important story. And he
again asked if he could bring the photos over to my apartment. I agreed and told
him I would have Ev and Linda over also, a safety in numbers thing.
So Ed comes over on a week night, shows us the photos and
leaves, but within thirty minutes he calls me and asks me out for Saturday
night. I agree, why not. I had already accepted a date with Matt, the reporter
for Friday night. This way I would have a good comparison.
The outcome of these two dates is going to surprise you. I
loved Matt. He was blond, from California; he looked like a surfer, a very
different kind of boy to find in the middle of Iowa. He was all about taking
risks, no safety net for this guy, and he was just the opposite of myself and
Ed. Ed was quiet, very serious, and I tired of doing all the talking. So I went
out with Matt quite frequently for the next three months. I gave Ed another
date or two, but just couldn’t find the spark of interest.
Then we fast forward to April of that school year. I am no
longer dating Matt, Ed is still working at the college paper as a photographer,
and we have a freakish snow torm on campus, dropping 16 inches and canceling
classes. As I walk through the Union I pass by Ed and say hello. We talk and
talk and talk and before the end of the conversation we are meeting that
evening for a movie. That was it, the beginning of our relationship, the end of
Matt, or any others I had dated.
I have no idea why, on this day in April Ed and I clicked
and why in September it wasn’t right. Maybe I needed to date Matt, maybe we
both needed experiences before we could discover what was right about each other,
maybe the universe wasn’t aligned correctly. Whatever it was it has lasted for
thirty-seven years at this point in time. And it has made a wonderful story to
tell. And while I do trust Ed completely, there are still times when he asks me
something and I do question it; you never know what he has planned.
diane bodnar
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