My host “grandparents” here at Edwardsville, Papa Rudy Wilson and his wife Laverne today marked their fortieth Wedding Anniversary. Yes, forty.
According to legends, he met her in 1969 at a get together where she (while being involved with another man) had attended with a male friend. He approached her and asked her to dance. She looked at him and gave him a look that must have meant nothing but “Hell no! Who do you think you are?” He refused to give up. Rather, he started tapping his shoes right there in front of her with the best of his dance moves. And, after perhaps shaking her head wondering what gave him so much confidence, she got enamoured and agreed to a dance. Three months later, she had left the person to whom she was previously engaged, and got married to Rudy. They’ve been together ever since, and blessed with grown up children.
To celebrate, Papa Rudy, now over seventy-one years old, bought his wife a card with some very nice words, a very nice present that she won’t disclose. In turn, she brought him a card, and a silver bracelet that she was wearing for him in the photo. I asked her what drew her to him, and she says it was his sensitivity, although its first manifestation was never what she quite expected. They had gone out on a first date to watch a movie, and halfway throughout the movie, Papa Rudy had tears gushing from his eyes. He looked towards her and asked her for a tissue, and she didn’t quite know how to react. In her mind were the thoughts:
1. What kind of man is this that cries in a movie?
2. What kind of man is this that cries in a movie on a first date with a woman?
3. What kind of man is this that cries in a movie on a first date with a woman and then asks her for a tissue?
The event must have been memorable for her to recall over and over again with a twinkle in her eyes, and fondness in his. She’s from Mississippi while he’s from South Carolina (but not related, even though he won’t rule it out, to the Senator Joe Wilson of the “You Lie!” fame). They’ve been through many things together, yet they’re still going strong.
The only thing that annoys Papa Rudy these days is not related to his marriage, but his name. It’s the fact that once every hour on radio or on television since winter began, the song “Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer” comes on to play. According to him, it reminds him of growing up with class bullies who put a red nose on him in school, and put him in the centre of a circus-like Christmas attention. Apparently, not all songs are politically correct. In any case, I have now been banned from singing that song (which happened to be one of my favourite Christmas songs) whenever I’m within his sight. Sigh.
Happy Anniversary Rudy and Laverne. Thank you for all your love.
At two am on Sunday November 1st, time changed in America and everyone shifted their clocks an hour backwards, to deal with the late daylight that has 7ams looking like 6ams. Since about a week and half, I’d been noticing the fact that the day still looked very dark by 7am, and it always stayed dark until about half an hour later, so it was much of a relief to finally adjust with everybody else, and be able to get one more hour of sleep. For a change, I was also able to use the daylight saving switch button on my Nokia phone. Up until now, the function never meant anything to me other than “another American thing”. In Nigeria, we never had to change our clocks during particular seasons even though this same changes occur twice a year when the day gets shorter and the night gets longer. We didn’t change our clocks. We just adjusted ourselves to it. The changing the time part of the ritual here – I guess – is to make it “official” and generally uniform. It would be weird to get out at seven o’clock in the morning and never be able to find one’s way around because it’s still dark. But I can’t stop wondering: does Daylight Savings apply to the people of Alaska, the land of the midnight sun as well?