My mother was fascinated by the timing of events. Listening to her has made me conscious of things occurring at a certain time. Although they’re small, they may turn out to be life-changing.
I still have the portable typewriter that was my Christmas gift in 1952 when I was a high school sophomore learning to type. For the first time in their lives, my parents used monthly payments to pay the large bill, which totaled nearly one hundred dollars. Seventeen years later, I could become a freelance reporter writing the news from the Durand community for the Rockford Morning Star because I owned a typewriter. I never have figured out why my parents gave me that expensive gift.
When our children were in high school, a work/study program was initiated. Lisa spent part of her day detailing cars for the local Ford dealer, an unusual task for a girl. Kurt worked on boats at a newly opened marina across the road from nearby Lake Summerset. Both of them liked their jobs and learned a lot about running a small business. I enjoyed listening to them talk about their employment and it was obvious they felt they were an integral part of the operation. One would say, “We do things this way.” And the other replied, ” Well, we do it that way.” Their earnings enabled them to buy their first cars needed to drive to Rock Valley College and obtain their associate’s degrees.
I met Mary when she dated Ken’s Winnebago County Police detective partner, Gene, and the four of us went out to supper on a summer evening in 1980. When school began in the fall, she was the bus driver who brought several Winnebago High School students to Durand for a mathematics course not available in their home district. The small schools in Winnebago County had entered into a co-op arrangement. While she waited for the kids during the first period of the day, we met again at a nearby coffee shop each morning and became friends.
When I learned the World’s Fair was going to be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the summer of 1982, I wanted to attend because that was probably the closest it would ever be, but I didn’t see any opportunity. Soon, Mary told me she was going to drive a school bus to take the teenagers from her church to the fair and added there would be room for me to ride along. On the way, we slept in sleeping bags laid on floors in churches, but Mary and I were in a different room from the teens and their chaperones so we wouldn’t be disturbed. When we arrived in the city, we all showered at the “Y.” It wasn’t a deluxe vacation but I enjoyed the fair immensely.
Those are a few of my happenstances. As you think back, how many things happened at a certain time to affect your future?
The meeting of both Bill Nigbor and Sidney Waldorf were chance circumstances that I took full advantage of. Bill I met at a Singles club when he was standing at the bar with some other men & I was sitting at a large table with some women. I got up from the table & went over to talk to the men (Bill in particular). Then Bill asked me to go in & have fish with him, & later after dancing, he walked me to my car with the promise he would call me, which he did. That was the beginning of a 22 1/2 year friendship, marriage, much traveling & love. Wonderful Bill died March 18, 2016.
I met Sid playing euchre at the Middleton Sr. Center. After the play, he was sitting alone waiting for the scores when I went & sat down with him. I then asked him for coffee the following Saturday; he said yes, & we were together 6 1/2 years before he died October 16, 2023.
Both of these wonderful relationships were the results of me taking advantage of opportunities that came my way.