It Was 20 Years Ago Today (times two)

Yeah...so I got lucky 40 years ago and met this guy in England at a party and then I went back home to Washington, DC but before I flew home my mum invited this guy and my godparents' son (they were good friends) to visit us for a few weeks in Washington, DC and they did and we fell in love (the guy, not my godparents' son) and we were 'intime' and then he went back to England and I sobbed at the airport and we declared unending love for one another and his plane took off from Dulles and I sobbed some more and then we decided that I would drop out of college and go and live with him in London and then I found out I was pregnant even though I was on the pill (I double ovulated but didn't find that out for another five years) and so I (an only child) told my shocked parents my plans and, well, they were not happy, but this was August of 1968 and it was a selfish time so I flew to England in October of 1968 and we married in November of 1968...as a matter of fact, we married on 9 November 1968 in Hampstead at a registry office which is no longer used and I was having a few problems with morning sickness but made it through the perfunctory ceremony and then we ate Greek food with some friends and my godparents and threw plates on the floor and then we were on a train...bound for glory.

Here I am, newly 20 and wearing a tourquoise blue maternity dress that I'd bought at Lady Madonna in Golder's Green and there is my husband, almost 24, wearing a brown suit he'd worn to his stag party the night before, feeling all hung over and probably a little 'oh shit i'm married' and stuff and me feeling another wave of 'oh shit i'm pregnant' and stuff.

Like I said, we got lucky. I am one lucky woman.

British Rail...on the way to Cornwall


Forty years later...Malibu, this afternoon, November 9, 2008