Earlier this week I ran into an old friend from high school.
I had not seen him in over 25
years. He and his family attended
the “Vines and Canines” dog walk at Martha Clara Vineyards. It was not a complete surprise, we are
friends on facebook. Those of you
who are also friends with me on facebook may have noticed I have a dog. His name is Max. You also may have noticed I go to the
wineries ever now and then. Mostly
now. Armed with that info, my
friend expected me to attend the event, and I did.
As you may have read in a previous blog, a few friends and I
had passed on our prom to create our own eventful evening. He and his wife were among the couples that
attended. We even rode together in
the same limo. When I got home later
that night, I had a picture from back then to show Christina. After the dog walk, my friend and his
family departed. Christina and I
stuck around to have dinner….and some wine. As I went to collect a carafe, I noticed they had
Sangria. There was a time when I
loathed it, and not because of its ingredients. It was what it came to represent, and ironically it happened
on that same prom weekend.
The 6 couples from the pseudo prom also planned events
throughout the weekend. Saturday afternoon would be a BBQ at my girlfriend’s
house. Things between us started
to get shaky, but we had been together all year and traversed many ups and
downs. That Saturday would be low key
as we all spent the early morning hours watching the sunrise at the beach. Later that day our attention focused on
football. The USFL had started a
spring football league and as a gift it would seem my favorite team, the
Michigan Panthers, was on national television. A group
gathered in the living room to watch the Panthers hand the Tampa Bay Bandits a
43-7 beating. With football,
friends and food…maybe I could be forgiven for not noticing.
The next day we had plans to play miniature golf and go to
dinner. Our choice was Beefsteak
Charlie’s with “All the Beer, Wine and Sangria You Can Drink”. I had never had Sangria before and was looking
forward to it. However, I had been
run down since Friday…staying home from school that day. Even for a 17 year old, I was now
pushing it to the limit. Everyone
was exited about dinner, and the drinks that came along with it. Feeling a bit under the weather, I was now
planning to pass on the Sangria. I
never thought to bring my fake ID.
After we were seated, the group ordered a few pitchers. All those drinking presented
proof. However, we where informed
the entire table needed ID’s…and I was the only one without. I offered to sit at an adjacent table
with my girlfriend. She quickly balked
at the idea, even though we would be right next to the group. The reason would soon become clear.
A few weeks later high school was out for summer, for some
of us…out forever. It was not long
after my girlfriend began to pull away.
I chalked it up to her anxiety of losing me as I went off to
college. I was young, naive and
trusting. Three things I will
never be again. Apparently with
the end of the school year, she was now separated from a certain someone. A someone who had sat at that same
Sangria table she did not want to be pulled away from. In a few more days she would be gone altogether, and in his
arms. Pictures eventually surfaced
from that Saturday BBQ. As others
in the photos went about eating and watching the game...it showed them together
in the background…looking like they were the prom dates. Even though I never tasted the Sangria that
weekend, it would leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
Over the many years I have softened. Who am I kidding, that’s not me. It wasn’t until Christina coerced me
that I finally sampled Sangria.
Now I even make my own.
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