When I met Tony it was in Galveston at a bar of all places. Yeah. Think about how that went over when Tony and I were sitting there with our priest for marriage counseling before the wedding. “So how did you two meet?” LOL. “Ummm we met at a bar, Father…”

Anyway, my sister needed a chaperone to go out as she wasn’t 21 yet and my parents were a bit on the strict side so she kept bugging me about it one week when I was particularly disinterested in the club scene. I finally caved in and took her.

At the time we both lived in League City with my parents. I had recently returned from being away at school to have found Melodi quite the social butterfly. Well, should I say even more the social butterfly than she was when I left.

When I took her into Galveston that night, I wasn’t dressed for a night out or anything…I was tired from work and a bit on the irritated side. But, I had kept putting her off and was either going to go out or put up with pouting from the baby sister. Oy vey.

So I weighed the pout against the three or four hours which would buy me a week or two's peace and off we went.

I am not even sure I had any money on me at the time. I was strictly there to babysit. It was a Friday and the bars on the Strand in DT Galveston were full. There were tons of flyboys in from Pensacola and Mel, my sis, was having a field day—well night I mean. There is nothing worse than being sober around a bunch of drunk people much less underdressed around a gorgeous brunette surrounded by a bunch of pilots…blech. LOL…

Anyway I was standing near the bar waiting for my sister to get tired of the BS so we could go home when Tony’s friend, David walked by and struck up a conversation. He introduced me to Tony, I picked my mouth up off the floor and figured if David wanted to keep talking he could do that all he wanted as long as I could stand there and catch glances at this tall, dark, quiet, handsome guy.

A little later I looked at his tie bar (they were dressed for a rehearsal dinner that they had come from) saw the globe, anchor and eagle and all I could think of was ‘ohhhhhhhhh’. It made sense all of a sudden. His bearing, how he carried himself, all of it.

Anyway after a while I noticed that my sister was not around those squids anymore and then it struck me that particular group of Navy boys weren’t there either. I was concerned and had to excuse myself to go look for her. I wasn’t too worried until after checking the club top to bottom and having no luck.

I passed David and Tony on the way out and Tony caught the snap and wound up outside of the bar where I had gone to look, but at the time I wasn’t aware being too upset and pissed off at the same time.

Out on the sidewalk in front of the club, I noticed the guys in a Jeep across the street and asked them about Melodi. They kept putting their hand to their ear and laughing and saying “what? Huh?”

My stomach sank when I realized that I wasn’t going to be given a straight answer. Then I heard Tony’s voice behind me. He told me to hold on a second as he strode past me and across the street to the Jeep.

I never heard exactly what he said, but the tone was all business--even the way he stood. A few minutes later he came back and told me she had left with one of them to go to a restaurant and she would be back. If I hadn’t have been so entirely torqued at my sister’s idiocy du jour I would have melted on the spot from this whole knight in shining armor thing he had going. And actually I am glad I had other things to deal with at the time or I would have made an ass out of myself. Being mad was just the ticket to coming off relatively cool about the whole matter…hehehe.

In a few more minutes my stupid sister showed up, Tony walked us to our car, we exchanged numbers and he shook my hand goodnight.

That was it.

I dumped the guy I was dating, this doc from Plano,TX and forwent a third year of Reserve Officer Training and knew he was the one. That was all she wrote. (Hell no I didn’t tell him that) Melodi to this day takes credit for our meeting and getting together…heh.

My father was always a little bummed that I didn’t go on to OCS and an Army career. Family tradition and all that. Truscotts make it a habit of offering at least one to the Army altar each generation. Then there was the whole I was hung up on a jarhead and not at least an Army fella.

Lol…in retrospect Pop must have had a small stroke over it…first his other West Point bound daughter blows off her appointment and enlists in the Air Force and then a couple of years later his oldest falls for a Marine.

Three years and eight days, two attempts at dumping his ass and a degree later, we were married. We are total opposites, but it works.