A Warm Kiss From a Stranger in the Atlantic Ocean at Dawn

My last blog ended in a shower of bullets, this blog is about a very unexpected warm kiss from someone I hardly knew in the Atlantic Ocean at dawn.

I was about 35 around the year 1977

 I was on an emergency business trip to Raleigh North Carolina, and had to stay overnight. We "Webcraft" had just gotten the contract for the Carol Wright coupon envelope and we were printing 13,000,000 at a time. I was in charge of the project and the envelopes were spliting in the mail after the coupons were inserted in Raleigh.   I ended up in a bar with a pool table and talked with a girl at the bar who I eventually played pool with the rest of the night. We exchanged phone numbers and said we would call like people do, but usually don't.

I did try to call her but didn't get an answer, most people didn't have cell phones back then. I found out she was in the hospital, I sent her flowers and a few calls later she agreed to visit me in NJ. She was going to stay for the weekend so I arranged for a double date with Eric and whoever he got to go with him so the two girls could have a separate room because the girl I invited made it clear that she was coming up for a date and not to expect anything else from her. not even a kiss. I felt that was fair, we would see how the weekend went, no promises. We went to the Jersey shore, and had a fun filled day and evening. We finally went to our hotel and Eric had gotten a date with a girl he had dated a few years before. He asked me and the girl I was with if we would sleep in the one hotel room because it had two beds, because he felt that he and Elanor, his old girl friend could have some time to themselves. The girl I was with said it was OK because she felt save with me. I realized that we would only be friends because I knew she was not interested in me romantically and I kind of felt the same way, but really liked her as a friend. We both felt comfortable with each other so sleeping in separate beds in our hotel room was no problem.

I talked with my date for a while and we went to bed in our separate beds and everything was fine. Just as I was falling asleep there was a soft knock on the door. I got up and there at the door was Elanor with her bag in her hand. She said she had a fight with Eric and could I find a way for her to get back to North Jersey, right outside New York city, or could she stay in our room. She was beautiful and Polish and I knew I couldn't get her to New York and back in time to get my date to the airport in Philadelphia to catch her flight so I said stay here. I let her sleep in my bed and pulled two chairs together and tried to sleep there.

Here I was, with two vibrant beautiful woman in my hotel room in the two beds and I was twisted between two chairs. I could hear them both softly breathing. What the hell was I doing here, I couldn't sleep, I decided to jump in the ocean about a block away. It was pitch dark outside. I was just reaching for the door to leave when Elanor said where are you going. I said I was going for a very early swim. She asked if she could go with me. Of course I said, yes. We ran down to the beach and didn't stop and ran right into the waves. I think she needed the cold reality of a wave hitting her in the face as much as I did. We played and splashed in the waves and were having a good time. We had a moment between waves, the water was lower, I picked her up and started to swirl her around just as the sunlight started to hit the clouds out over the ocean, she kissed me. I was totally surprised, I didn't know her, I was very attracted to her, it had been a very long time since anyone had kissed me. We stood there as the sun came up, passionately kissing each other, hardly noticing when the waves pushed into us. We stayed there for a long time, not talking, just savoring the emotions that were going through us. Something very special happened in the moment that our lips met.

We finally got out of the water and realized we were both famished. We went to a NJ diner and ate voraciously,  and then realized that Eric and my Date were probably wondering what happened to us.

When we got back, my Date and Eric were upset with us. I got my Date to the Philadelphia airport just in time, on the way back to the airport, about a two hour trip, my Date got very interested in me. I think it is a trait of woman and probably men to get interested in someone when they know someone else is interested. I never saw the Date again. Elanor really wanted to see me again and I wanted to see her. I asked Eric if it was OK and he said yes, so the adventure goes on. We had some great times together, we went on a trip to Maine, went to fantastic restaurants in the New York city area, went camping, and she made delicious perogies from scratch.

An added note. I am cleaning out old boxes of stuff, May 23, 2015, and I just found an envelope addressed to the girl from Raleigh, from 38 years ago, don't call me a horder. Her name was Martha Harris.