Sheri's version:

They say you always remember the first time you see someone, but I truly don’t remember the first time I laid eyes on Terry.

I do however remember Chef Barnett calling a young man who worked nights beginning every day around 1:00 p.m. He would call him on the telephone over and over, trying to wake him up so that he would be on time for work.

I worked split shifts and Terry worked nights, so the only time I saw him was usually Thursday thru Saturday nights and sometimes on Sunday.

Terry always seemed to be in my path at work. He was never in his work station except when we were really busy at the Country Club. I would always try to be polite and say “Excuse me” when he was blocking my way. He would always reply “Kiss you!?!”

I remember thinking that he was really really cute.

Pete Pacheco encouraged Terry to ask me out, even though I had already declared that I would not consider dating anyone who was my age. I was looking for someone at least 10 years older than I was.

The first time Terry attempted to ask me out was on an early Sunday evening. We happened to be walking down the hall to leave the Country Club after our shift. He tried to start a conversation by asking if I like to ride bikes. I said yes, and just then my supervisor, Kathleen, got my attention to tell me of a schedule change. When I turned around, Terry was gone. He had gotten cold feet.

The Fourth of July fell on a Monday that year. We were normally off on Mondays, as the club was closed. But due to the holiday, we had to work. I remember Terry waiting near by as another young man asked me for a date that night. Terry waited, hearing that I was going out with the other guy and then asked me if I would go bike riding the next day, which would be our day off. I said yes to both of them.

I had a horrible date with the other guy and couldn’t wait for the night to be over!

The next day, Terry showed up at our apartment and we left to go bike riding for six hours!
Terry never tried to hold my hand or even kiss me good-bye at the end of the date.

When we returned to work the following day, Terry totally ignored me! I couldn’t figure out if I had done or said something to offend him, but he definitely was avoiding me.

Another week passed and much to my surprise he asked me out again. This time we would be spending the day at the pool at my apartment complex. We spent the entire day at the pool and we were both VERY SUNBURNED the next day.

We ended up at the Golf Pro’s apartment (in the same complex as where I was living). He fixed us both something to drink and we visited with him awhile.

When we left the Pro’s apartment, we sat outside and talked for a long time. I figured if Terry wasn’t going to try and kiss me, I would try and kiss him. That is all it took…….we were inseparable from that day forward.

My mother even called my father (they didn’t speak to each other very often, since they were separated and going thru a divorce) and told him that Terry was the one they needed to worry about……..she saw a chemistry between us that I had never experienced with any other young man.

I had plans to move back to Atlanta Georgia and live with my best friend from high school at the end of August that summer. I was going to go to work for Delta Airlines as a stewardess and she was going to college. I had purchased new luggage and was very excited about getting the chance to travel.

Two weeks after we started dating (around the first week of August), Terry asked me if I wanted to get married. I said yes and asked when he thought he wanted to get married. He replied “In two weeks”. I told him that I wanted to wait at least four weeks. We decided that Monday, August 29th 1977 we would go to Clarendon to get married at the courthouse.
I had always wanted to get married at my grandparent’s lake home on Lake Greenbelt. There was no way our families could pull off a wedding in such short notice, so we told them that we would be going to Clarendon on our day off.

We went to the courthouse in Amarillo to apply for our marriage license. My mother’s only sister, my Aunt Joyce worked in that department of the court house. She cried and cried thru the entire process of filling out our marriage license. I was so embarrassed; everyone was looking at us as she “bawled her eyes out!” Now I appreciate the fact that not everyone’s aunt gets that opportunity.

My grandparents went down the weekend before we were to get married and put snacks and champagne in the refrigerator. My sister, Tracy, made our “Just Married” sign and my Aunt Joyce strung cans to hook up behind our car. The sign Tracy made featured the “Love Is…” characters and it read “Just Married…she got me today, I’ll get her tonight!”

My entire family fell in love with Terry. My grandfather Taylor thought he had hung the moon!
They were all very excited that we were getting married, they expressed that they had wanted us to wait until the end of the year to get married, but we did not want to wait.

We met Gary at the courthouse around 1:00 p.m. on the square in Clarendon. I wore a white eyelet sundress and Terry wore that gawd awful polyester beige leisure suit with a shiny tropical shirt and his suede platform shoes…..I didn’t care, I was in love!
My bouquet was a fresh arrangement of white daisies and little white roses with baby breath.

We drove back to Amarillo in the pouring rain. I tell everyone that if it rains on their wedding day, it is a good omen.

We went to dinner at Rhett Butlers where Terry’s cousin Darrell (he worked there) came to our table with a congratulatory bottle of champagne. This was technically the first date Terry and I had ever been on. We worked such odd hours that restaurants were closed by the time he would get off work late at night and we wanted to spend every minute of our days off together.

After dinner, we went back to our apartment and changed into some casual clothes and we went to a co-worker’s apartment. They had planned a little wedding reception for us. They had a little cake and everything.

Our family and friends would stop by our new apartment and drop off wedding gifts during the next few weeks.

So, Terry and I dated for an entire six weeks before we got married. My parents only dated one week before getting married, so we were not setting precedent by marrying only six weeks later.

Some said it would never last, Terry says “It still might not!”

Last August, we celebrated 30 years of marriage!

Terry's Version:

I was working at Tascosa Country Club in Amarillo, Texas as a sous-chef when I was 18. One night a new waitress started work and I was smitten! She was the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. Of course, being the shy person that I was, I didn’t talk to her for quite some time. I had to know people for a while before I could be my clownish self around them. Sheri would come to the kitchen to prep salads for her table or to pick up her orders and I would be right there in her way every time. I finally got to the point where I could talk and joke with her without feeling too self conscious.
Most of the time it was pretty slow during the week at night and I had a lot of time to try and charm her off of her feet. I took forever to ask her out though. My friend Pete had to really talk to me for a several days before I built up enough nerve to actually ask her out for a “date”. The time had come and as I approached her I was “cut off” by the manager’s son as he stepped up to talk to her. To my horror he was asking her if she would like to go out dancing that night. I was devastated, almost to the point of just turning around and not asking her out at all, but before I could make my getaway she finished talking to him and turned to me to see what I had wanted. I stepped up to the plate and asked her if she would like to go bike riding the next day. I was ready for the rejection and at first was not aware that she had actually said that yes, she would like to go riding together. The rest of that evening is pretty hazy in my memory.
I went by Mom and Dad’s house the next morning and got the 2 bikes and rode about half a mile to the apartments where Sheri was living with her mother. Her mother answered the door and told me that Sheri was still getting ready. I spent about 15 minutes visiting with her mother and a friend before Sheri came out and we left to go riding. We rode bikes for about six hours and wound up back at her place in the early evening. I really think she expected me to “make my move” before leaving her place but I didn’t, I just told her how much fun I’d had and left to take the bikes back to Mom and Dad’s place and pick up my car. I went back to my apartment and crashed on the sofa. I hadn’t had much exercise since high school and I woke up the next morning gasping for breath and sore all over.
Being the shy person that I was I convinced myself that after not even trying to kiss Sheri after our bike ride that I had blown it with her? I don’t think I said one word to her the entire week after the bike ride. Then one day as I was leaving work she was sitting out front and I asked her if she needed a ride home. She accepted and we took off. I spent the whole ride trying to figure out how to ask her out again. We arrived at her place and at the last possible minute I asked if she wanted to go swimming together the next day. She accepted and we spent the next day at the pool at her apartments. We actually spent most of the time sitting on the edge of the pool watching her brothers and sister playing. I think I had 2nd degree burns on the tops of my legs by the end of the day. In the evening we just sat talking at her place and I told her that I had to get going. She walked me out to my car and on the way she reached out and took my hand and then when we got to my car she kissed me goodbye. About the only thing I remember after that was she was all over me like a cheap suit.
We spent the next couple of weeks getting to know each other in between working different shifts at the country club. I think it was just a couple of weeks after our bike ride when I asked Sheri if she would marry me. I wanted to get married right away but she looked at our schedules and figured out when the best time would be to get married. We were married on August 29th of 1977 and celebrated 30 years together last year.