Stephanie Part Two

Gradnite is one of the most important dates for a senior in Southern California high schools if your high school happens to do this of course. Not all of them did as it was a bit expensive but I always thought it was worth it. The Prom may be as important but I preferred Gradnite. Gradnite is from 10 PM until 8 AM the day you graduate or very soon after. Only about fifteen or so  high schools go each night so it is not crowded at all and the lines for rides are very short. I picked up Stephanie in the old 1956 Blue Pontiac Convertible…the best Drive-In Movie car ever built…and then went to get my mom and grandmother so they could have the car overnight. The school didn’t want a lot full of cars! Then we all packed onto a school bus… Rick and his date and future first wife Janis Minke were also there and sat in the seat in front of us.

Stephanie’s senior picture taken in September of her senior year…the most beautiful 17 year old girl I ever met from Danville.J

Stephanie was wearing a black knee length sheath dress and a light sweater. I had some suit of mine on since Gradnite required ties and jackets for the boys. We did a few rides and talked all night danced close and for me it was the perfect night! We even got photos taken of us as a couple in Frontierland. (When I got married Janice destroyed any pictures I had of any other girl I ever dated… so I no longer have anything from then).

This picture from Gradnite is a copy of Stef’s sent by her sister Sandy. She was wearing down by the time we were heading back to the bus but we both really got along just great and we did a lot there and ate well. I fell for her totally but I had to leave soon after graduation for training at Fort Ord. I was sad that I would not get a chance to see her for over 6 months. But that night was magic and I still think it was the sweetest date I ever had for a myriad of reasons. When we returned from Gradnite mom was waiting in the parking lot and I drove her home so I could take the car to take Stephanie home in a little privacy. We drove up to her home and then I pulled into the driveway as she asked and she sat with me in the car as we talked about a few trivial things. She would look up at me on occasion smile and gently close her eyes and listen to me talk. I must have been boring her to tears! After a while she dreamily looked up, smiled, and asked if I wanted to kiss her. Of course I did (Wow! I don’t have to be asked more than once) and we did right there. She has the softest lips I have ever experienced, she never tried to end the kiss and I only broke it off since we were out in front of her house and I was one of those “decent” boys and I didn’t want her neighbors to think badly of her (or me). We did it once more for nearly as long. It is still the best two kisses I have ever experienced in my life by far. It is emblazoned into my brain cells forever. I think a full half of my brain has been taken up with that memory. After that was over and my heart was beating somewhat normal she invited me in for breakfast and she made a very nice one. I even sat with her dad, Norris and he seemed very nice and we talked while Steph cooked. She made bacon and eggs for both of us and I had visions of this being all I could ever want in life. I did get to come over to her house a few times after that, but we were never alone again. She usually had her cadre of girl friends there, Pam McRoberts, Julie Kaneaster, and JoAnn Kirby among others…all wonderful girls too. One time it was to watch Joe Pyne and I think I was there to debate the girls in points of view or something. I never understood where I stood with her and I guess that was also part of the scheme of things with her.Not too long after this I went to go to Fort Ord and she had agreed to write with me while I was there until I came back. Letters were always nice in training since it was extremely lonely being far from friends. 

 (L)Here I am at Fort Ord when I was writing to Stef.

She would write things about her family and her girl friends and tell me things that to me seemed inconsequential to me… I was really lonely and actually wanted something a bit more girlfriend like even though we were not that far along at all… I stuck my foot in my mouth and told her so which angered her enough that she told me she didn’t want to write if I was going to be like that. I agreed and we stopped writing altogether. I was more than sad to say the least and it was totally my fault that this died on the vine. I just gave up on the idea of her and me as a couple. Well over 8 months later after basic and advanced infantry training also at Fort Ord I was able to come home. I had been built up like mad from the 137 pounder when I went in to around 175 pounds of solid muscle… I grew from 5’10 to my current height of 6”1 ½” while there with the good food and constant physical training.

I did see her in that next year at the Edwards Cinema where she worked.Shown here. She even came to sit with my brother Jeff and me to talk a bit and she did this a couple of times, but I just didn’t have it in me to call her. I was scared that I had hurt her and I was scared that I would be hurt too. Then I totally lost touch with her and have not seen her since. I still of course wish I could see her once more. The girls before her were all very nice, but Stephanie ruined me for the type I had been dating. Stephanie was just the total princess and I was the bumbling peon trying to impress her enough to come down in class and run off to never-never land with me. Years and years later I found from Pat Bourgeois that she lives in Chicago and I sent her a Christmas card each year but she has never once responded in any way. So I guess my memories are better than hers! Mine always seem to be better than that of the people I am recalling.

The Powder Puff Football game and Steph played for the seniors that year shown with green highlights… She is number 64 and circled …unfortunately she had turned as the picture was snapped so all we have is her wonderful hair. 

On October 15, 2005, I got the goofy idea of looking up her old high school and wrote at random to one of the school secretaries. I got Karen Bottarini and she was wonderful. She searched the El Lobo yearbooks for the two years that Stephanie was there and she found a couple of nice photos.

Stephanie as a freshman (R)

…it just didn’t seem too much like her and I would have had a little work making sure it was she! This is Stephanie as a freshman age 14. It is by far the curliest her hair had ever been as far as I knew. But that is her cute nose and pretty lips! She would have been popular in Costa Mesa even back then! The only year she even 

had a glimmer of a smile was her junior year photo from Mesa High. All the others have really serious looks she is giving the camera.

Her sophomore year as a Lobo (green and gold were the school colors so she must have felt pretty good about coming to Mesa and going to green and white.) at San Ramon Valley High School looks very much more like her. She even has a bit of an Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha in Bewitched) look to her as well. Wow… I would have been so stuck on her even this year. It is too bad she didn’t arrive for another 11 months.

This is Steph as a sophomore age 15 (L).

Her hairstyle is getting to the wonderful soft Steph look she had at Mesa. Those amazing blue eyes are peering out at us so nicely too!

I feel really lucky to have met her way back then. She has been a nice part of my life and she made my graduation the best graduation I have ever had. I had two in the Army, one in junior college, my bachelor’s graduation and my MA graduation and none come even within a light year of how nice she made my high school graduation.