A Trip to Sacramento
It was the fall of 1986 and Kris's calendar was now filled with me! We were both working at Consilium in Mountain View. We held the same position, Software Development Engineer. We were in the same building with our offices just down the hall from each other. As a result we saw each other multiple times a day at work and we were spending most of our time away from the office together.
One of our first getaways was a weekend trip to a place near Mendocino called the Little River Inn. I had been there a time or two in the past. As it turned out this was also a place Kris's dad Bill knew of. I decided to try to make it a more scenic, romantic drive by driving up Highway One. It would be longer, more of a 4 plus hour drive but we had time. Big mistake! Kris is someone who gets carsick easily and before long she was turning green. I had to drive slow as well as stop a couple of times. It didn't take long for me to realize that we were probably not going to get to Little River this way, and even if we did Kris was going to be a wreck from the drive assuming she survived it. This was anything but romantic. So,I headed over to 101 as soon as I could. If I'd gone 101 in the first place the trip would have been in the 3 hour range but thanks to my idea the trip took 5 to 6 hours but at least we arrived on the same day we left and Kris was mostly back to normal. The good news is we had a nice time once we got there and Kris didn't dump me after the weekend. In fact that became a regular getaway location for us that we still visit to this day.
At this time our drink of choice was beer, this was back in the early “micro” brewery craze which was just hitting California. However, we also sometimes drank wine and going wine tasting was a common out of town activity. Napa was already crowded with the “wine tasting crowd” so we took a tasting trip up to Sonoma Country. I remember visiting Chateau St Jean, Kewwood, and BV - Beaulieu Vineyards. We may have also stopped by Gundlach Bundschu too. This would become another activity we would regularly do for years and it wouldn't be long before we changed our drink choice to wine.
We were seriously in love and it wasn't long before our families became involved or at least informed about our relationship. My parents were still living on Long Island in New York and it would be awhile before they would get to meet Kris. However, Kris's parents, Linda and Bill both lived in the Sacramento area. They were divorced . Linda lived on O Street in mid-town Sacramento and Bill in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento where Kris had grown up .
The holidays were fast approaching but before that, Kris's dad, Bill, had a birthday coming up at the end of October and her brother, Mike, had one at the beginning of November. A gathering was planned at Bill's place for the occasion. So we headed up to Sacramento and that meant it was time for me to meet Kris's family in the flesh. Given my past, I was always a little apprehensive about meeting the parents of the woman I was seeing for the first time. With Kris's parents being divorced I would be meeting them separately, so at least they weren't going to be able to gang-up on me. On the other hand I would need to be on display and pass inspection two times.
I may not have the order quite right but I remember meeting Bill first. What I most remember about visiting Bill was that gathering, as gatherings do, had a particular start time. Kris got us there right on time, which seemed a touch odd to me but I figured she might have wanted her dad to meet me before anyone else got there. We parked and as we were walking up to Bill's front door here comes both Kris's sister Kathe and here brother Mike. That is right, all three kids, coming from 3 different places managed to arrive at the exact same time and it was the exact time the gathering was scheduled to start. Given the way I grew up with my family this was a bit of a mind- blowing experience. It was a general rule in my family that if you were invited to someone's house for a social event that you should arrive no earlier than 10 minutes late and more commonly 20 to 30 minutes late. Showing up on time was considered impolite. One should always give the host some wriggle room for preparation. Out on my own, I showed up for gatherings/parties at least 30 minutes after the start time. My mom's mom would violate this family rule, even arriving early. (How gauche!) As a result she was always given a time that was 30 minutes after the actual start time. At all my family's social gatherings family members would trickle in often being more than 30 minutes late. Now this didn't apply to appointments and business meetings. It also it didn't apply to things like shows or dinners at a restaurant. We were always on time for things of that nature. It was only for social events at someone's house. Bill answered the door and he and everyone else were welcoming and friendly. I got along with Bill right away. It was easily the best first meeting of any of my girlfriends' fathers.
The strongest memory I have of meeting Linda, Kris's mom, was of her cat. She had this big old cat that was probably the meanest domesticated pet on record. Seriously, I dreaded walking by the thing. I am not a cat person largely due to the fact that I am allergic to them but I generally don't have any bad feelings towards them. Linda's fierce 30lb (or so it seemed to me) feline would menacingly hiss at me any time I got anywhere near it. I made sure to track that cat's whereabouts while we were there. That cat was meaner than a junkyard dog. I remember realizing that I was going to have to pass by the “demon cat” to get to the bathroom and quickly decided I didn't really need to go that bad. Thank goodness I was younger then as that would sadly not be an option for me today. Linda, like Kris and I worked in IT. Linda was smart and interesting, in a good way. She was a good conversationalist and made me feel most welcomed.
Both visits turned out to be pleasant and I enjoyed meeting both parents. I didn't get any “Jenny” type questions (See my story of June 25, 2022 “Heidi, and her Mother, and Me”). Everyone was friendly and welcoming save you know who or what. I remember telling my parents about how nice and welcoming Kris's parents were to me and my father piping up and saying that there must be something wrong with Kris if her family was so quick and happy to accept someone like me. Yup, good old dad, always in my corner. I like to think he was joking....
thank you. I loved it
ReplyDelete