It was May of 1960, on a Saturday Morning. I was driving along Vliet Street not far from home when I suddenly got a flat tire. Back in those days we girls relied heavily on the male gender to come to the rescue. Luckily there was a gas station with a repair shop right in front of me. Also across the street I spotted a nice looking young man with a beautiful tan. He saw my predicament and came straight toward me. The guy from the gas station also came.

The two men conversed a bit and decided the tire should be fixed by the gas station. The young man introduced himself and offered to keep me company while the car is being fixed. The attendant assured me that he was an okay guy and I should spend the time with him while my car was being worked on. He lived right across the street from the station and he promised to play some German records for me. I was somewhat nervous, but he assured me there were other people upstairs. I expected to see family members.

When the door opened I was a bit in shock. Six or seven guys sat around a table playing cards and drinking beer. Smoke was thick in the room. The mantle over the fireplace was stacked to the ceiling with beer cans. A dead looking Christmas tree sat in one corner. There was left-over food and full ashtrays everywhere. A male hang-out of the worst kind. What did I get myself into? Ivars introduced his friends and he did pretty much what he promised. He dug out some German records and played them for me. He was a perfect gentleman. We even danced a bit. The rest of the crowd ignored us and kept talking in a foreign language - Latvian. When it was time to go he escorted me down to the door, asked where I lived, and got my phone number but didn't write anything down.

I was sure I would never hear from him again even though I was quite taken by his friendliness, beautiful smile, and self-confidence. A week went by and nothing. Then after 2 weeks on a Saturday evening while I was waiting for a date to pick me up, there was a knock on the door. To my big surprise it was Ivars! We did not go out that night but he took a rain-check and we went out soon after. And that folks, was the beginning of a life-long romance!

                                                                                                                        Elsa