(Submitted by reader David Doggett)
In 1991 I lived with my new wife in Boulder Creek, CA, a mountain community in the Santa Cruz mountains, not far from the Pacific coast of northern California. Although only twenty miles from San Jose and Silicon Valley it seems like a world away, partly because the major highway is a winding road where it is difficult to go 40 MPH for very long. Because of the length of the drive and the curviness of the road it was seldom that we went into Silicon Valley for evening events.
My daughter lived with her mother in the city of Milpitas, CA which is on the other side of San Jose from The Santa Cruz mountains. The south bay area, around San Jose, is home to about 2 million people.
In 1991 my daughter was due to graduate from high school and so my wife and I planned to go to her graduation. Since we would be in Silicon Valley for her graduation we arranged to take in a play that was being put on at Santa Clara University. The play we got tickets for was the operetta Iolanthe, a play by the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of Gilbert & Sullivan.
Although Iolanthe is considered to be an adult play, first performed in London at the Savoy Theatre, on 25 November 1882, I am the eternal optimist so I offered to buy my daughter a ticket if she wanted to accompany us (on her graduation night). I had never seen Iolanthe and was excited about this opportunity. Well, she informed us in effect “thanks but no thanks” because she had a date for that night. She didn’t know where he was taking her but he said it would be a “cool” evening. So, after pictures galore off we went to the play assuming our Grad would have a wonderful evening at some young people’s night spot.
We arrived at the play and we were floored to discover that our daughter and her date were running the concession stand at the play Iolanthe!!
[EDITOR: Concessions stand? Cool date, indeed. – Jarrett]
Surely you are not dissing local theater, Jarrett, are you?
Most certainly not. But I can’t imagine my ex-wife would have stayed my wife as long if I’d taken her to run a concessions stand as a date…
As the daughter, I can say this is not totally accurate as the date had a friend that worked at the theater and he gave us free seats (if there were any) if we ran the snacks during the intermission.
Also, the snacks was not where my dad first saw me: I was looking at the bulletin board of events in the theater before the show while my “date” (even with the quotes it’s a very loose description considering this first date he gave me) was off talking to his friend. I heard this cough behind me and turned to see my dad!
i was shocked, as was he, because he hadn’t told me where he was going or what they were seeing and I didn’t know where we were going until we arrived at the theater.
As the sister of the daughter (therefore the second daughter of David) I can attest to witnessing none of this, but I will say that hearing a cough behind her would be an accurate description of noticing our father, as he has a very distinctive cough.
That is all. I guess I wanted to feel important too, since I am mentioned nowhere in this story. ha.
I know the type. Some people you just plain know from the most subtle details. Whether you see their posture or gait from a distance, recognize a cough or a laugh, or even odd things like the jingle of their keys, certain things will always identify a person even if you can’t see them clearly.
Thanks for updating us with the rest of the facts and a few corrections! It’s a great story, and I think the added details on the “date” and how it came about are even better. I hope you’ve had memorable dates since for better reasons.