Picture it, Ball State, September 8, 1985. I had moved into Elliott Hall for my last year of college. Elliott Hall was the Senior dorm, a beautiful, old, Tudor Gothic building built in the late 1930's. 3 stories tall, Women lived on the the first and third floor and men on the second. I had made quick friends with two guys across the hall, John and Mike. After a long morning of unpacking clothes and hanging Led Zepplin posters all three of us were ready to eat. Anything. Even dorm food. We walked downstairs and through the ornate Jacobean lounge and into the small TV lounge that was filled with 6 sofas. 2 girls were sitting on one of the sofas watching TV. One was blonde and fair skinned. The other had tanned olive skin, big brown eyes, and long, curly, dark hair. Big 80's hair. Mike asked them what time the Dining Room opened and the dark haired one replied, "11:30, I think" As we walked down the stairs to the Dining Room, Mike commented to me, "Cute girl." As we sat down to eat, the two girls from TV lounge walked in and sat down with us. Pretty soon, there were about 8-10 of us sitting together talking and making plans for a party that evening. The dark-haired girl had ended up sitting next to me. I found out here name was Cecile Rossi, a biology major from Indianapolis.
That night, the party was in full swing. 15 people crowded into one 12x15 dorm room. Music, food, drink and of course, the ever-present euchre game. Cecile and I ended up as partners at euchre. Thus started a comfortable pattern. All of us in and out of each others rooms, being typical college students. A couple of days later, John mentioned that he was going out with Cecile. "Damn," I thought, "I was going to ask her out!" Cecile and I had a 9am class in the same building and ended up walking to class together, laughing and talking. One Friday night, about 2 weeks after school started, a group of us made plans to go to King's Corner, a nightclub located just off campus. As it ended up, Cecile and I were the only two people that didn't have dates that night. John apparently had to do laundry. As we sat there talking, we discovered that we had been born on the exact same day. The song, "What I Like About You" by the Romantics began playing. We jumped on the dance floor and danced. The next song was Billy Idol's "Mony, Mony" I don't remember the rest of the songs, but we hardly sat down the rest of the night. As we left, and the 6 of us climbed into my 1978 Buick Regal, Cecile managed to sit in the middle of the front seat. God, I miss bench seats!
The next Thursday, on the way to class, I asked Cecile if she and John were going to 25 cent beer night at Bash Riprocks that evening. "I'll go if you go," she replied. "What about John?" I asked. She told me that she had only gone out with John once and just wasn't interested in him. Later that day, I went up to Cecile's room to let her know what time everyone was leaving. As I left a note on her message board, I noticed John had left her a similar message. "Great," I thought, "This will be uncomfortable." And so it proved. As the group of us walked down University Avenue toward The Village, Cecile walked in the middle with John on her left and I on her right. After that night, it was understood. Cecile and I were a couple. I had always heard that when you meet "the one", you'll know right away. Apparently, we knew. After having met on September 8, 1985, we were engaged on October 28, 1985. On August 30, 1986, we were married.
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