In honor of
Valentine's Day
…and a forever kind of love. One White Mitten
T
WRITTEN BY JOHN R. GREENWOOD
his story began the day a Saratoga Springs High School ski trip pulled away from the curb in front of the Lake Avenue School on Saturday, February 28, 1970.
I submitted the piece on October 12, 2008 to, This I Believe. It was accepted and can still be found by searching OneWhite Mitten, @ thisibelieve.org. It was one of my first ventures into writing. This is a love story. The ultimate high-school-sweetheart love story. It is a story of two average teens that fell in love, raised an average family and lived an average life. It is a story that a husband needed to put in print. It is a story that is not unique, it is as I said, “Average.” This story is happening next door, across the street and maybe in your house. This story is going be told, because you see, it’s long overdue. The average story doesn’t make big headlines or profits. But, is the average love story really average, or is it as I believe… “extraordinary?” For those two teenagers to live and love for richer or poorer, through sickness and in health, till death they do part is to - this average man - a story worth telling. I dedicate this story to my wife, the beautiful young high school sophomore with the Irish dimple and the white mittens. The woman who gave me goose bumps, Brendan and Kevin and the never-ending love that moved me to put this down on paper.
72 | SIMPLY SARATOGA
It was a high school ski trip on the last day of February 1970. We made the date at our hall lockers. I was excited. It was Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks in the early years.The weather was cool not cold. A yellow school bus full of high school sights, smells and sounds sat at the edge of a snow encrusted parking lot. It was 48 years ago but I can see, smell and hear that day like it was yesterday. She had on her long green ski parka, knit hat and the white mittens. The white mittens that started this lifelong love in motion. It was a great day of skiing, hot chocolate and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She was different from the rest. She was herself. No makeup just Chapstick, nothing phony, just pure Catholic school girl honesty at its best—young and beautiful.We were all alone on a yellow school bus full of people. Laughing and teasing teenagers warm with anticipation and cold feet. Then it happened. One clean white mitten fell to the floor of that dirty old yellow bus. I bent over. She bent over. It happened just like that. She looked at me. I looked at her. I picked up the mitten and kissed that beautiful young girl.That moment, that instant and it was never going to be the same. She stole my heart and changed my life. Epilogue: For those readers out there, who possess a passion for something or someone, please don’t wait for the perfect circumstance to express it. Imagine if the mitten never falls… SS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com