I married you for better or worse but not for lunch. But I’ll meet you for lunch any time The Professor tags along!

This is an oooold photoooo of our beloved friend, The Professor. I’m almost afraid to say how oooold it is. Er, 25 years, I think. We haven’t seen him in, oh I dunno, maybe 22 years if I had to hazard a guess. The Prof was here on the Planet Ann Arbor today and I trundled all the way across town to meet him and the GG for lunch. And guess what? He does not look any different!

The Prof and the GG worked together all those years ago. And meeee too. He lived on here on the planet and/or one of its satellites back in those days and even stayed here with us at the Landfill for a short transitional period in his life. He is responsible for our beloved Paul Winter CD and our Christmas Day tradition of watching that wondrous old Christmas movie, Metropolis (the much disparaged one with the rock score, thank you very much). And many other things.

I have lots of memories but I’ll only share two. One per beach urchin. Elizilla was around 1-1/2 when The Prof was staying here and one night he baby-sat for us while we went to a play. Elizilla loved The Prof but, after a while, she decided that it was time to go and find her mama. It was winter, so Elizilla handed The Prof a pair of the GG’s glubs. She then peered at what The Prof was wearing as a jacket. The Prof and the GG had the same zip-up LLBean sweater in those days (which I wish they still sold…). After a bit, she silently decided that he would be warm enough in the sweater. That was what her dad wore…

Next, she handed the prof a set of car keys. The keys to Mama’s Little Gold Car aka the 1979 Ford Fiesta that I owned at that time. The prof played along for a bit. He helped her put on her jacket and glubs and hat and stuff and they went outside. They got into my car. She pointed at the ignition! At that point, he decided he needed to re-direct her. I can’t remember exactly how that got managed but she decided they would walk. They went inside to get her beautiful new blow-up globe, a gift from the prof himself. She instructed him to put it in a paper grocery bag and they were off again. With hilarious encounters along our street. Dogs and drunks and curbs and more.

The Prof didn’t interact with Mouse as much. By the time Mouse was born, he was on to new things in other places. But he did visit a few times then and I will never forget a day in our back yard when Mouse was three *weeks* old. The Prof picked her up and, as he was holding her, she was eyeballing him in the kind of way that only Mouse can. *Who* under the *sun* are *you*?

I don’t have the words to express how happy I was to see The Prof here on the planet today and once again bask in his sparkling intelligence and energy and creativity. I have missed having him around here on the Planet Ann Arbor all these years. Love. That is all.

One Response to “I married you for better or worse but not for lunch. But I’ll meet you for lunch any time The Professor tags along!”

  1. isa Says:

    I think I remember that!!