We Get So Soon Old

Way back in the Fall of 1972 my roommate and I went to the spelunkers' club meeting at Lowry Hall, at the University of Missouri-Columbia.  The cavers were a grubby bunch; dirty blue jeans, dirty beards, but Reed and I were at least in clean clothes, and maybe not too grubby looking. We were hoping to get leads on caves we could visit.   We watched a slide show of cave pics, and they did the necessary club business; but what my buddy and I were aware of through the entire meeting was a good looking blonde girl who sat right in front of us.  She was well dressed and good looking!  When the meeting was over she turned around and asked us if we could take her caving!!!!!  We hadn't seen that coming, but she had an assignment in one of her classes to report about spelunking.  I beat my roomy to the punch in getting her phone number, and pretty soon Susan and I were dating.  We actually went caving together, too!  Susan's Mother didn't much care for me when she found out that we were going to Rocheport to rappel off the cliffs along the Missouri River.  Mothers are funny that way. It's amazing how quickly forty-five years have gone by.