Thirty Years Ago Today

First let's get this out of the way - we aren't so cutsie as to have spent the last 30 years celebrating the anniversaries of the day we met. However, because this is the 30th anniversary, we did some calculating based upon when Geoff was hired and when he arrived in San Jose and we came up with June 24th, 1977. We'll be taking turns telling about the day.

ELLYN: Geoff already mentioned that we met at the Secretary's desk. Sue had been my department's secretary and Sue and I were friendly. While I was over in her area that day, I dropped by her desk to say "hi!" While I was there a young man I hadn't seen before came up to her desk to ask for a moving expense form. I asked where he had moved from and heard the story he's told above about him being send from MN to SJ for the year. Then I went back to my desk.

GEOFF: This was a long time ago, so I may not remember it exactly, but I went back to working on my expense forms and do not think I gave Ellyn another thought. Later in the day, I was in the room where our big, flatbed tester was. Ellyn came to the door of the lab. She asked what I was doing that night. I scrambled for something. "Uh, nothing". Oops. "Uh, I just got all my boxes from the movers and I have to set up my stereo in my apartment." I was missing my tunes. Maybe I should have gone with "I have to wash my hair". She said she was going to meet with some friends at their house that night and wondered if I wanted to come along. Somehow, I agreed to this rather forward approach from a young woman I had just met. Could be fun, even for a social misfit like myself. "Ok, but I gotta have time to get my stereo working first."

ELLYN: On that momentous Friday, I had plans to go over to my friends, Steve's and Liz's new home, to hang out for a while that evening. After I had met Geoff, I was thinking (very presumptiously since I didn't know anything about him) that he must be lonely since he was new in town and decided to invite him to go with me. Two important points: ONE: I thought of this only as an invite to a colleague who was new in town. I had absolutely no other motives. TWO: The fact that my house was cleaned up that day made me more comfortable in asking Geoff to join us. Who knows, if my house hadn't been clean that day, our paths wouldn't have crossed in the way they did. At any rate, Geoff accepted my offer and we made plans for him to pick me up at my little house later that evening.

We'll add the evening's story in the next posting...