The photos in this blog post were not taken on the day we met. I can't remember exactly what day we met - although I'm pretty sure it was in April or May, 1979. I can't remember exactly HOW we met, although I have a story I like to tell, which I'll share here.
These photos were taken exactly 45 years ago today, on January 14, 1980, a Monday, and may have been as much as nine months after we met. They are terrible pictures, but they are important (especially now), as they are the first photos of us together. I'd gotten back home to Corpus Christi late the day before, after a nine-day road trip around Texas with my cousin Donna.
I believe he gave me the large dark green ring that you can see in the pictures on my left hand just a few weeks before, at Christmas 1979. The ring was sterling silver with a large malachite stone in an unusual shape. I wore it for years, until the stone fell out somewhere. (I do, however, still have the dress I am wearing, which my mother made for me. And it still fits.)
Above and below: Mark Gresham and Amanda Pape, Corpus Christi, Texas, 14 January 1980. Taken with Amanda's Pentax SLR mounted on a tripod and using a self-timer.
So here's the story, as I remember it.
I started working for the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, Park and Recreation Department on Monday, April 2, 1979, two days before I turned 22. One of the first assignments I got from my director was to prepare our department's revenue estimates for submission to the Budget Office - of which Mark was the director.
The Park and Recreation Department generated revenue - income - for the City through a variety of fees - swimming pool and tennis center admission fees, fees to play a round of golf and rent golf carts and other equipment, registration fees for teams participating in the city's athletic leagues, facility rental fees, and marina boat slip rental fees, just for starters.
I had to look at the previous year's estimates and year-to-date revenues, and come up with estimates for the next fiscal year, as well as write a justification for my figures. I looked at the forms for previous years and found little justification for the numbers generated, so I worked really hard to come up with good, well-justified estimates. (Fellow R&P major friends - Crompton's RP 401 helped!)
Not too long after submitting the estimates, I had to go to the Budget Office to meet with our department's liaison there, Randy Moravec. Mark came by Randy's desk to introduce himself. I'd like to think it was because Mark was impressed by the estimates I'd produced, and the detailed justifications. No, he told me - he says he just saw an attractive woman at Randy's desk that he didn't know, and he wanted to meet her.
And the rest is history. Tune in again tomorrow when I jump ahead to 2006 and our second romance.
