THE ONE I LET GET AWAY!

       Her name was Penny. She was a blue-eyed, chestnut blonde beauty. A cross between a Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Montgomery.

       I first met her at a party that I put on with a couple of friends at a park in Urbandale, Iowa in the later 1970's. I think maybe she just heard about party and actually crashed it. It doesn't matter,  I was always so grateful and happy that she came into my life that evening.

      Our timing from the beginning was not the best. Even though we started seeing each other on a regular basis, I had committed with a friend and fellow bachelor, Bob, Merritt, as we had purchased a new home jointly at 1806 Rio Valley Drive in Clive, Iowa. 

      I know she sensed that if I did go ahead and buy the house with Bob, it would hurt our relationship and future plans together. Her intuition was probably correct in that I had only been divorced for less than a year and it was my feeling that despite my very strong feelings for her, it was too soon to commit again. I simply wanted to enjoy bachelorhood for awhile as I had  married the first time at such an early age.

       She made one last and very strong attempt to pursue me by renting a very nice home on Douglas Avenue in Des Moines and enticing me one evening with a candle lit dinner and romantic evening. I recall the following day was one of the longest and most stressful I have or had ever encountered. I have thought many times that I possibly had made the wrong decision. But, that's life. To this day, when I think about her, I am not sad but, only think good thoughts about her and how at the time she brighten my life!