10 years

It was a cool but sunny Wednesday afternoon in Lubbock, TX and I had accompanied Lori and Carmen to dinner in the cafeteria at Lubbock Christian University. Once we were finished eating we needed to head over to the boy’s dorm to pick up Lori’s boyfriend Allen (who was making some kind of health shake in his room) to go to church. As we were waiting, we were goofing off in the lobby of the boys dorm, talking about Halloween the next night. This guy that I knew from Pine Springs summer camp, Josh, was working the desk of the dorm and agreed to take Lori, Carmen and myself trick-or-treating the next night. After the Halloween plans were made I started playing “Speed” with Josh as we continued to wait. Allen was taking an incredibly long time to make that stupid shake. I remember being annoyed at first with the length of time he was taking. My goodness, it is a shake, how long does it take?!? When Allen finally came down from his room ready to leave for church I decided to stay and continue playing card with Josh. I had a class with him (Math-and he flirted with every girl in that class but me Thank you very much) and I knew him from camp at Pine Springs years ago. So we continued to play speed until we grew bored with the game and decide to watch “Young Guns II.” By the end of the movie we were smitten. We ended up holding hands and going for a walk around the campus. We made our way to the benches outside the Education building where we shared our first kiss.

Now don’t think I just saw an opportunity and took it, he may have, but me? No, I had been eyeing him in the weeks prior to this, thinking that he was quite fetching and quite a ham.

The next day he took the three of us trick-or-treating. I dressed as a scarecrow, Lori as a mime, Josh as a werewolf and, well, I don’t remember what Carmen dressed up as. So we went trick or treating and had a great time. I don’t think I had been in a few years and had a great time. We got a few “looks” but had fun none the less. Now earlier in the day during our Math class I had been discussing “Romeo and Juliet” and how much I wanted to see the flick as it was opening that Friday night. Josh gave me a hard time about it in the classroom, but on the walk back to the dorm he asked if he could take me to see the movie. Of course, I said yes. The next night I dressed in my best jeans, a white shirt, my new kicking boots and a wonderful sweater (I owned that sweater for years, not allowing myself to part with it. I am not even sure I have parted with it.) I looked HOT! Now, Josh on the other hand, still needed some help in the “dress to impress” category. He wore white pants(!) and a white shirt and a green silk jacket with a zipper. Was it 1984? If he hadn’t been such a gentleman I probably would not have forgiven him for the outfit. He still sees nothing wrong with the clothes he chose to wear, but I got rid of that green silk jacket thing as soon as possible once we were married. We enjoyed the show and I don’t remember if we got dinner or not that night.

On Saturday we had signed up for Chap-A-Kid, a program where underprivileged kids got to come over to the campus and watch a movie and eat hotdogs. Before we went to pick up our “kid” we went to Fuddruckers and still consider this to be one of “our” restaurants. Especially the one in Lubbock. We ate at Fuddruckers dozens of times in the 2 years we lived there. Anyhow…We had the cutest little boy and enjoyed our time together watching the movie and eating cold hotdogs in the SUB. The poor child asked if we could pick him up a Burger King kids meal on the way home so that he could eat it for lunch the next day. Heartbreaking! He called Josh for a few weeks, then he stopped calling. I often wonder what happened to that young boy, he would have to be 17 or 18 by now.

So that is it, our story. How the Sumpters became the Sumpters.