22-Pasketti

So I think I was on the second date with this redheaded woman when she invited me to her house for dinner. She had two young children, a boy three a girl four years old, So dinner was going to be spaghetti and meatballs, or as the kids called it, pasquetti and meatballs. Now I'm sitting at the dining room table with the two kids when my date appears at the door. Somewhat like a drill sergeant, she bellows, okay, strip. Now I'm thinking to myself, this date is moving along much quicker than I anticipated. I'm jim pulling, and this is my view from the middle. One of my favorite pastors are a clergy anywhere is a fellow by the name of John Bryant. When my wife, Melody and I were married in nineteen eighty six, he was the associate pastor of the church then known as Pinecastle United Methodist Church in South Orlando. He was the minister who performed our marriage ceremony. We still attend that church, now known as bell Isle Community Church. Pastor Bryant left Pinecastle Church to take a senior pastor role at another church and was there for many years before he officially retired. Meanwhile, I had assumed a volunteer role in the leadership of Pinecastle as chairman of the Staff Parish Committee. Our job was to oversee the hiring of paid staff at the church, and we were in need of an associate pastor, which in our case, for our size of a church, is a part time position. Our senior Pastor Scott George, had performed a funeral service for one of the congregants and John Bryant was asked by the family to preside alongside Pastor Scott. Somehow, during that experience, or perhaps shortly thereafter, Pastor Scott had learned that John Bryant might be interested in coming back to Pinecastle to work part time as associate pastor again, even though he was technically retired. It turned out to be true, and one thing led to another and we hired Pastor Bryant back. It was a great day because most of the congregation of the church knew and loved Pastor John from when he was with us before. When I attended the funeral that Pastor John co conducted, I went to shake his hand in the receiving line at the wake. I didn't think he remembered who I was. After all, it had been twenty plus years since he had seen me last, so I reintroduced myself and reminded him that he had presided over my wedding at Pinecastle in nineteen eighty six. Pastor John looked at me very seriously and with an eye of skepticism, and said, are you still together? Yes? I said. A big smile came across his face and an obvious look of relief. Good, you never know these days, he equipped. Not long ago, Pastor John and his wife celebrated their anniversary and we had a big celebration at the church. I got up in front of the crowded fellowship hall full of people and asked for a show of hands as to who in that room had had their wedding performed by Pastor John. At least half the hands in the room went up, and yes, they are all still together. As I created this episode, my wife, Melody the Redhead, and I have been happily married for going on thirty eight years. We had applause. When we tell people we've been married for that long and they want to know how we do it, I never really have a good answer. I usually just parrot what my dad used to say whenever people would comment about how long he and my mother had been married. It's a long time with one woman. I never knew what my dad meant by that. I probably don't want to know. Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't use that expression if I don't really understand it. Oh well. Melody and I were married when I was thirty and she was thirty five. We were the oldest couple in the wedding orientation meeting of the church. We looked back and laugh as we thought about the young kids who, when asked why they were together, would stand up and say things like, oh, we just love to cook, and we love to do things together. We like to do this, we'd like to do that. Well, we would get up and say, well, we'd kill each other trying to cook in the same kitchen, and we probably don't have that much in common, and we don't do that much together. The cooking part of that is true. The other things were there for comic relief. I believe it was our second date, and Melody had invited me over to her apartment for dinner. Mel had two children from a previous marriage, a boy three years old at a girl who was four, So on the menu that night was spaghetti and meatballs, or as they called it, pasquetti and meatballs. I'm sitting at the dining room table along with the two kids. Melody was in the kitchen preparing dinner, when all of a sudden, she appeared at the door. Much like a marine drill sergeant. She bellows out, okay, strip. I thought to myself, Gee, this date is moving along a lot faster than I had anticipated. Well, I'm kidding, of course, she meant for the kids to strip down to nothing but their undershorts. Spaghetti, as I quickly found out, is one of those total immersion meals for little kids. By the time the meal is over, all you can see are the whites of their eyes because the rest of them is covered in spaghetti sauce. Pardon me, pasquetti sauce. Hence the reason for the military style just robing at the dinner table. The postmeal ritual, I also quickly learned, was to dunk the kids in a bathtub and an attempt to restore their skin to its natural fleshtone. It was either that or hose them down in the backyard. But the neighbors tend to gossip less with the bathtub option. Dating a woman with two small children can be a challenge. I remember picking Melody up at her place for a date. A babysitter was there ready to go, but the kids weren't looking forward to the evening as much as we were. As we pulled out of the parking spot, we were left with a vision of crying faces of torment pressed against the window of the apartment, their little sweaty hands streaking down the window, crying and screaming as the babysitter frantically tried to gain control of the situation. After all, I wasn't just taking their mom out to dinner at Chee Cheese, but apparently kidnapping and ripping her away from their little lives, never to return her again. So there I was in the middle, dating a beautiful redhead, totally out of my league, but with two kids who apparently wanted no part of me doing that, But are all worked out for the best. The kids are now in their forties and they no longer cry when I take their mom out on dates, at least not openly. My stepdaughter and my grandson live in Colorado, and my step son lives in Georgia. Melody and I are retired now, but from time to time for dinner, we will still make a big pot of pisquetti, but now we just use a lot of napkins. I'm Jim Polling and that's my view from the middle. In the next episode, how portraying a mentally challenged couple endeared us to the church. The Big Fat Park next on My View from the Middle.