Hi{s}tory

The night of November 20, 1999 at An Evening of Elegance is where it all began. Here is my story…

            Like most men in St. Louis, I was doing the Bachelor thing of going through the women of St. Louis trying to find "Ms. Right", however, I just could not find the "Ms. Right piece to my puzzle".  Sure, like any stud, I loved the single life, but I knew that I had to stop playing games and eventually settle down. Not to mention, the club scenes were getting old and dating different women all the time was becoming quite expensive and cumbersome to say the least.

            One afternoon, I went to visit my friend Lameka who had been in a car accident in the hospital, and she mentioned a dance that was being thrown called An Evening of Elegance. She said that I would have so much fun if I attended. I thought little about it until later in the week, my buddy Lou {now my Best Man} coerced me into attending by stating, "I'll go only if you go".  Well, why not I thought; an open bar, a buffet & beautiful women?!?!?!?! Well, I had no idea that that would be the night that I would meet "Ms. Right piece to my puzzle".

            The most memorable moment the night of the dance turned out to be when I saw Kim on the dance floor. She looked breathtaking to me. She was dancing with some guy, but I looked right past him. Since the majority of people at the affair worked at a Boeing, Inc, I just assumed she had as well.

            As she was walking off the dance floor, I walked right up to her and asked, " Excuse me, do you work at Boeing…"

            To this day, she tells me that I gave her some cheap line. Well guess what? It worked wouldn't you say? Since that night and since that question, the rest is her-story.  

The moral of my story can best be summarized by a quote; 

" Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet that right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. "

Her{s}tory

            Well it all started around the first of November in 1999, I remember it all so clearly. My co-worker and Soror, Michelle Robinson, asked if I wanted to go to a dance at the Kappa House called “An Evening of Elegance”. The dance would benefit her friend that was in a really bad car accident.  Michelle hyped the party up and said it was really nice the year before and she knew the people who were throwing it.  The whole month I debated on whether to go or not.  I didn’t feel like going to a party where people just stand around and do the St. Louis click thing.  However, it did sound pretty cool and I had a cute outfit I could wear.  I had just come back from LU’s homecoming (that’s Lincoln University for all you non-Lincolnites). Plus, it was at the Kappa House (so I expected to see some pretty boys), the party had a cool name, and the ticket included food & alcohol; all the right ingredients for getting my monies worth .  Let’s not forget that it was all for a good cause, which put the icing on the cake (actually it was the alcohol, but I don’t want anyone to think I am a lush or something).  So on November 20, 1999 I attended the “Evening of Elegance” and it was at this affair where my life changed.  

            I arrived and checked out the scene with Michelle, who knows everyone in St. Louis.  I’m running into old classmates from LU and the night was going pretty o.k.  However, I was a little frustrated because the click thing was definitely happening and guys were not asking many women to dance (so high school).  

            About halfway through the night this guy asked me to dance, so we danced a couple of songs and then the "Perc-U-lator" comes on.  Well I told homeboy, I don’t Perc-U-late and we began to walk off the dance floor.  As soon as I take ONE step off the dance floor (the other foot didn’t even get a chance to hit the floor) this other guy (the one and only Samuel B. Howard) walks right up to me and asks “Do you work at Boeing.” I said “No, why did you ask me that?” His reply “Because most people here work at Boeing.” At this point I’m thinking, "what kind of line is this?"  I was also thinking, why did he just block me from getting my Mack on?  So Sam asked me to take a step into the hall so we could talk. I’m thinking to myself, "what the heck, you just interrupted my MACK, nothing better to do" (just kidding, me a Mack, yeah right, however I do like to remember it that way).  This part is a little foggy, but I remember us talking and me giving Sam the third degree.  Little beads of sweat kept running down his forehead.  Finally he asked me would I call him and whipped out this HOMEMADE business card with his name, number and the SUPERMAN emblem on it.  I was thinking, he has got to be kidding.  I wondered how many of these cards he had given out that night.  He asked me to promise to call him, I said, I don’t make promises but I will call.  Later on that night he asked me to dance again, I said no because my feet hurt, but he pulled me onto the dance floor anyway.  We danced a few songs then it was time to go.

            Well believe it or not,  I called Sam the next day around noon, not even 24 hours had passed. He was so surprised.  He didn’t think I would call, but I did.  Sam says since I called so soon I must have been lonely. Yeah right, I called so soon because he had enough guts to approach me and move another guy out of the picture, plus he had been a real trooper with me giving him the third degree.  But what sealed my interest was, you know those HOMEMADE business cards he had? Well………………………………….I had made some TOO.J

             One week later we started dating and have not stopped to this day.  And that’s how I met the LOVE OF MY LIFE!!

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