OK, Ray & Mindy, Paul & Laura, Bruce & Terri and others tell us the story of falling in Love during high school. For the rest of us tell the story of finding your sole mate.
Margie Sparks & John Quarles
I (Margie) came to Tates Creek my Sophomore year, not knowing but two people. We had moved the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year, and all my other friends went to Lafayette, and I "had" to go to Tates Creek. My two friends were Mindy and Cindy Hancock, we had gone to Beaumont Jr. together, and lived close to each other. I was pretty quiet then,(not anymore), and it was hard for me to make friends. I did the best I could to try to make friends, but then one day there was this guy,(John Quarles) hanging around, the only problem was he like one of those friends, not me. Well..... that friend (Cindy) was transferring over to Lafayette for the rest of her high school days, and so John decided maybe he would talk to me and see what happened. We "started dating", in March of 67, and dated the rest of our Tates Creek days. He actually gave me an engagement ring for graduation, (have you ever?), and we were married on October 17, 1969. SO..... the day of our TC reunion is our 40th anniversary!!!! We are so thankful to God for placing us together and keeping us together for all these years. We have been very blessed, maybe not with wealth , but abundantly with love for each other and our family.
Phyllis Brooks & Joe Esenbock
I (Joe) was working for John Cook Volkswagen (1971) there was a girl, Judy Becknell working there also. My friend Pete, a mechanic, for JC-VW asks Judy out to a party Judy, said yes and brought along her girl friend from high school/college (Phyllis). At the time I was just too dumb to realize what she would become to me a year latter, at first she would not go out with me. Phyllis’s dream guy was her height, size and blonde with money. Well needless to say I didn’t fill any of these items, 6’5”, 215, Black hair and broke. So it was and up hill challenge for me to get her to go out with me but she did. The first time we went out I picked her up in the dune buggy I had. Her Mother told him Father “Phyllis was just picked up by a guy in a strange car it had 4 big wheels and made a lot of noise” we went to the lake in the dune buggy it had no top and it rained hard she climbed under the dash to get out of the rain, what a laugh that was. Phyllis was to leave for stewardess school in Kansas in the Fall of 1972. Before she left I ask her to marry me, the day she left, good timing hu, well we’ve be happliy married now for 37 years. I’ll try to get her to tell the story, I’m sure it will be different.
Geneva Lewis & Mike Larkin
Our love story Mike and I dated when I was a Junior at TCHS. I met him at Pasquales Pizza on Winchester Rd, I worked there and when he started working there, I thought he was a major I thought he was HOT!! We were friends for a while, then we started dating. It was love almost instantly. He joined the Navy, but before he left for basic training, we became engaged. Next, he found out he was going to Viet Nam, and he broke up with me. I being 17, on the rebound, and VERY stupid, married someone else in January 1969. That marriage did not go so well, but lasted 10 years. When I was finally divorced, I looked for Mike, could not find a phone number for him but always had thoughts about him. I married again in a few years, it lasted 17 years, but always in my heart was that feeling of wonder where Mike is and anytime I was in Ky, I would wonder if i would run into him in a mall or a restaurant..... I never did. My 2nd husband and I divorced in 1997, and in 2001, I moved to Las Vegas to be near family here. I had been here about 6 months when I found Mike's brother on classmates.com(can you believe it?). I zipped him an email and waited. He sent an email back telling me his family history of the last 32 years. The most important sentence in it was the last one, the one with Mike's email address. I was so afraid to send that first message. Would he remember me fondly or even at all, would he want to contact me, and worst of all, was he single? Suffice to say, all of the above were true!! I got an email back in a few hours, he was single, remembered me, and our reunion began online. In a few days, we began talking on the phone. He came to visit in Oct. 2001 our reunion was wonderful, I picked him up at the airport in a Limo, we went to lunch at a cafe, then back to my place. He stayed 10 days and wonder of wonders when we talked, we found that we had both been looking for each other for 32 years. He went back to Lexington, packed up his stuff and his dog and moved to Vegas. We were married January 5, 2002 in a casino in Las Vegas, we had a ballroom decorated in traditonal wedding style. The Bride wore a black tuxedo gown with a white collar. We wrote our own vows(of course what else would children of the 60s do?). Mine began with "Michael, I have loved you since I was 15 years old" his with "The circle that was broken with my misstep is finally completed" our vows ended quite traditonally with til death do us part. It is truly amazing that it only took us 32 years to get back to where we started. Life with my first and only true love is very good. I feel truly blessed.