wasn't I irreplaceable once?

This takes me back to the long days and oh so short nights of my youth. It was the summer between my second and my second, second year in college. I had put all thoughts of flunking the last two semesters out of my mind and had fully focused on my summer job as a lifeguard at a small California beach community.

It wasn't the summer of love, that was well before my time. It wasn't the summer of lust, as fear of AIDs pretty much put the damper on free love. But it was the summer of mild infatuation.

I met her that summer, or rather she met me. I was just standing there, watching the water when she stumbled into me, knocking me down and forcing me into a momentary lapse of consciousness.

When I came through again, we had already exchanged pleasantries, gone out on our first date and she had even introduced me to her parents. It was almost as if her hope chest had already been positioned at the foot of my extra-long twin bed.

But that's not to say that things were as rosy as it all sounds. For starters, I didn't even know her name. I thought it was Sam for a while, but after a while, I realized none of her friends were calling her that.

And there were a lot of other things I didn't know about her, things you would expect someone in my shoes to have known. I didn't know her shoe size, whether she liked Coke or Pepsi, and why she was always humming Toto songs. But the other lifeguards I worked with told me that some things always remain mysteries. That even when you've been married to someone for years on end, that you don't ever really know much more than their rank and serial number.

I didn't even know that.

So when the summer was coming to an end, and I was forced to start facing a repeated year at school, I came to the decision that things just couldn't continue. For starters, she went to a different school. There was just no way love could last when two people were separated by a 25 minute bus ride across town. And then there were our different backgrounds. Would our friends ever except this match? I mean, I know several of my friends would have looked down their noses at her. Not to mention how infuriated my girlfriend was going to be.

The day I told her my decision was one of my longest and one of my shortest. Just as our relationship started with a momentary lapse of consciousness, the blow to the head she gave me with a strong uppercut knocked me cold for about 25 minutes if my watch can be trusted. When I awoke, she was gone.

And now, looking back at it all from so many years and miles away, I do realize that you were once irreplaceable. It was perhaps for just a short time, but it was for real.

But nothing in life lasts, right? Well, that's my wife calling, she says the grandkids are coming over for dinner. They're making a big deal about our diamond anniversary! We told them not to bother, but you know how family are.