Heaven in General

Falling asleep last night, I got this earbug. Music is a time machine.
I was back in the small Condo off Tropicana a mile from Boulder Highway. The first time I heard this song was driving from our apartment to Boulder to find Nellis Blvd.

“Oh, looking back on our younger years…”

I had moved from Kunsan AB, Korea back to Maine, then drove cross country to Las Vegas. I had been assigned to the now defunct 474th TFW.

By the time my bride had made it stateside I had established our home in the above-mentioned condo, furnished it (as best a 22 year old could do) as I awaited her arrival.
On the night she arrived I flew from Las Vegas to LAX, took the bus to the international terminal.

Picked her up, the reversed back to the bus, took a flight back to Las Vegas. Loaded her luggage into my shitty little Chevy Monza, and drove home. I was exhausted, and she was nothing short of shell-shocked.

And.

I had to be at work a few hours after we arrived home.

In this story, this had to be February-March 1985. The weather had turned in Las Vegas, but I was working long hours at the 474th. Life was a bit idyllic, the condo complex had a huge pool. Our front patio was big enough that my little smokey joe weber grill didn’t draw much attention.

Technically we weren’t supposed to grill, but everyone did anyway.

At that point in my life, my bride stole my breath every time I saw her. I was 22, she was 27.

She was unbelievably beautiful. And with that beauty came the body.

On weekends we would go to pool. She could barely swim, and I was a former lifeguard. I’d go into the pool and wait for her. Then we would hold on, sometimes for hours. Then go back and and hold on some more.

I sometimes breaks my heart that we ended the way we did. I had transitioned to the Navy, went through flight school, and we diverged. We arrived at the point where we were no longer a couple, even though we had two children in common.

We’ve been separated/divorced for over twenty yeas now. Earworms serve a purpose, I suppose.

But I don’t like the sad that they bring.

“And baby you’re all that I want, while I’m lying here in your arms.”

I’ve lost faith in heaven. No matter how hard you try, It isn’t meant for some people.

Last updated January 14, 2022