The Last Farewell.

The Last Farewell is a song by Roger Whittaker.  At the time Lourdes and I began dating, I was working at a record store at Variety Records in the Omni mall. Lourdes was about to go to Europe, with her good friend Silvia Cajigal. Sometime before she left, I asked  her if there was any music she liked that I could get for her.  She told me there was this song she really liked and all she knew about it was one line ...for you are beautiful.....  I promised myself that  I would get that song for her and give it to her when she arrived....  Normally this would have been an easy task since I worked in a record store but in our case, it was almost impossible to accomplish.  

When I first started going out with Lourdes was around May 27, 1978.  She was about to finish her Bachelor of Science in Biology, and I would finish my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry a year later. We had met many times; it was almost a joke how many times we were introduced to each other.  The first person to introduce us was her boyfriend at the time, Philip Sanchez.  I was a pretty good friend of Phil's.  He was the guy at the bowling alley who would charge for each game you played.  Since if any mistakes were made he would allow it.  I always ended up playing for free.  He would make a mistake on my bowling sheet.  The charge was 0.35 cents per game.  Mistakes were made. Phil and Lourdes were in my Organic Chemistry I class, Dr. Wellman's.  They would always study together.  I of course, would always study alone.  It was there where Lourdes and I we first met.  I remember telling Lourdes about it and she was always surprised that Phil referred to her as his girlfriend.  I am still not sure if she was trying to minimize their relationship. 

I would always have lunch at the Ibis cafeteria with a number of friends including Fabio, Victor and Georgina.  Sometimes I noticed that Lourdes was also present, although we never sat together.  I did not think she liked me at all.  The first time we actually spoke, she inadvertently touched my hand.  I withdrew my hand and pretended to be grossed out.  We actually met more extensively when she was taking Organic Chemistry laboratory, CHM 203, and she had to identify an unknown made up of a dipeptide. I was in the library and several students were discussing it.  After several tests on the dipeptide, Lourdes was pretty sure she had the answer.  Phil was around and Phil asked me if I could help. We were supposed to come up with the answer by judging how far each peptide travelled on a chromatography plate.  After Lourdes had the answer I asked, "but how do you know they are not the same peptide, just repeated twice?"  I had no idea what the answer really was. Her laboratory exercise was different from the one I had carried out. The two peptides seemed to travel at very similar pace which would indicate they were the same peptide. Lourdes became upset because I think she realized I was right.  I later found out from one of the teaching assistants that the peptide was not repeated and in fact she was right.  I did not speak to Lourdes for a while after that.  

We were never really together but we shared common acquaintances.  Then I started playing volleyball with the Friday night volleyball games in the physical education field. We were around 10 students, and we would play with a group of friends from Kuwait.  Also, there were a number of people from the labs and people we had met elsewhere.  One day, Lourdes decided to join us for the Friday games.  There we actually spoke a little. At the time I liked this girl named Yasemin, from Turkey.  I have no idea how she is doing now.  I have always kind of wondered.  

At the time, I and a couple of friends, would go to the Rathskeller.  This was a bar in the back of the student union at the UM.  I normally would go but since I did not really dance I was limited in what I could do. Victor and Maria were great dancers.  Fabio did not really care but had fun. I started to think, who can I ask to dance? and there was Lourdes. I remember dancing with her a couple of times. I had fun but was a bit embarrassed since I did not really know how to do so. 

I kind of wanted ask her out so I told Victor and Fabio and Maria and Marlene so, later in the week i spoke to VFMM (Victor, Fabio, Maria and Marlene) about it.  I finally did ask her to go dancing.  Only problem was, I had not idea how to dance.  I told VFMM and they came up with the idea that we would all meet at Maria's house.  Just to clarify, Maria and Victor were a couple.  Fabio and Marlene were another couple.  I and Lourdes would be the next couple. At the time Lourdes and I hardly knew each other. 

You may find this hard to believe but this was my first date, ever.  I had never officially gone out with a lady before. This was late in the school year of 1978 so I was going to be 21 years old. We arranged a time to pick her up.  It was at LMT's family's house.  Juanpi also went.  He must have been around 15 years old, perhaps younger.  It was good to have him there although he seemed to dominate the conversation a bit. I was happy he was there.  

All of us met at Maria's family's house and Fabio and Victor and the ladies all did their best to make the Moose look and move like John Travolta.  His movie, Saturday Night Fever had just been released around 1977.  

We learned many of the steps used in Disco Dancing.  Sad thing is that if anyone asked me to dance nowadays, that is exactly how I would dance.  

That weekend the whole group went dancing.  I still remember Victor spoke to me before we left and we were discussing if it was best for me to drive or for him to drive.  Victor knew I was nervous.  This was my first date ever.  He wanted to see if it was better for me to drive or for him to drive.  At the time i had my second car ever. It was a volkswagen station wagon, beige or tan, I do not remember.  I think it was tan.  I believe Fabio and Marlene rode in the Fabio mobile and I, Victor, Lourdes and Maria rode in the tan volkswagen station wagon. I drove.  We both felt that I would not get as nervous if I had to drive.  

We went to either Pete and Lenny's or one in Miami right next to the airport.  We may have gone to both. That whole summer we spent the time disco dancing at several locations somewhere along mainly Fort Lauderdale.  

Time was coming up for her trip to Europe. I had told her I would get that song with the lyrics "For you are Beautiful" for her.  This was not an easy task.  I have forgotten the date she left.  I remember I wanted to get the song.  I asked several buyers at the store (Variety Records,, Omni Mall). The conversation would proceed thus, girlfriend is in Europe.  I promised I would get this song for her. What was the name of the song, I do not know.  All I know is that sometime during the song, the singer would say: For you are beautiful. That is all I knew.  You would be surprised how many of the ladies actually tried to help me.  I first asked George (I believe his last name was Morris).  Very nice guy who really tried. He really tried but he did not know.  I then asked Charlie, still no answer.  I literally spent days asking people this question. They would ask me Can you sing it?  And I would sing the only portion of the song that I actually knew.  It went something like this ...For you are beautiful.....All the ladies at the store were trying to be helpful.  No one had heard the song.  Finally someone told me that the manager may know.  I went up to her and I asked her.  She said that was a Roger Whittaker song.  I  had no idea who Roger Whittaker was.  She actually bought the song for me.  When I heard it, I was sure that was the song. 

Lourdes was returning in around two weeks so I really got it just in time. I think I still  have it at home but I am not sure. 

Lourdes and I were married on August 1, 1981.  

The Spring Concert 1971

 One of the first times I actually did extra curicular activities in grade school was in seventh or eighth grade during something called the Spring Concert.     It was difficult for me to participate in these things since I never thought I had enough time.  It was fun to do.  It may have been in eighth grade since I do not remember any upper classmen in the class being in the choir.  They may have been there but I just do not remember.  One of my friends asked me who I was going to vote for in the what I think was the Harvest Queen competition.  I remember there were two main competitors that I knew.  One was in my class, the other in another class.  I know I liked both of them.  I do not remember what the actual name of the position or title was, although I do remember who I voted for.   

The choir director was Sister Mary Williams, although I am not sure that was her actual name.  It has been a long time.  She was one of my sister Teresa's favorite teachers.  I may remember the name wrongly. We were going to sing a selection of tunes such as The Bridge over Toubled Waters, Songs fom Carousel, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, and the Sound of Music.  I had never sung in a choir before although I had always been interested in doing so.  I actually had a lot of fun doing so.

I remember we nixed the Bridge over Troubled Waters since a lot of us could not reach the high notes anymore.  All the boys were at that age, or just past it.  I was kind of sad about it.  My brother Robert was going to use that song as his graduation song in his class as he graduated from LaSalle High School.  The person who was going to sing it was Francisco Batista. He was the lead singer of the Antiques, a locally popular group. He did a great job.

Mom was very supportive.  She had always been supportive of my efforts but I was surprised since she was always so busy.   She was always so busy.  She was raising nine children, and doing it very well and I would not really speak to her about it very much since at this time she was already working either at the Topps Factory or the Juliette factory or raising another child.  She worked all night so if she was needed at the house, she could be there and help. This was when I was thirteen so my little brother and sister were still very young.  When I think about it now, I am very pleased when I realized how supportive she really was.  I am also very impressed as to how much our parents had to go through.  Although at the time, I may not have fully realized it.  In fact I was a bit surprised when I saw she had attended the concert. She always showed up for me and I was very happy she did.  I do not know why I was surprised.  Sometimes we took our parents for granted I guess.  I believe right after the concert she went to work. At that time she may have been working as a baby sitter at the Montmartre Hotel.  Stuff to think about when we think we just have too much to do.  This is partly why I write this blog so my kids will realize how hard our parents worked so we could go far.  

I remember a little bit about each of the songs we sang.  I remember all the words to a few of them. I remember Sister kind of scolding in my direction to keep the noise down.  I guess I did not sing as well as I thought I did.  I slowly started learning the songs and from where they originated.  Some of them I knew, some I just did not.  The one I had the hardest time learning was "On the Street Where You Live" by Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Later on it became my favorite of the repertoire.  There were a few others which I did not know but they had simple melodies and I could figure it out.  To this day, if I hear any of those songs, enjoy it and I am back in the choir.  

That was probably the first time I had signed up for extracurricular activities.  I would play football and baseball and basketball but never really be on the team.  It was surprising how few extracurricular activities there were available at that time.  My first time was the Spring concert mainly because my sister, Teresa, told me that Sister Mary Williams was a good choir director. 

The most significant memory from that experience was mom telling me how proud of me she was.  That is a nice memory!