Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 218 N. Locust St. - Carlisle, KY - 859-289-6425

Now that the Scalfs are officially residents of Carlisle, I think a proper introduction is in order. Allow me to present myself, and the tale of how I came to be married to my beautiful wife, Cindy.

I was born in Syracuse, New York where my dad was an electrical engineer working for GE. Shortly after I started kindergarten, Dad got transferred to Magnavox in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I was actually a pretty good kid, growing up. I didn’t get into much trouble or cause my parents much grief. I did the normal kid stuff like playing baseball in the city’s summer league, playing football in junior high and participating in marching band and track throughout my high school years – the whole time managing to keep fairly decent grades.

Still, I was socially awkward. This was partially due to genetics. I was a scrawny, red-haired, freckle-faced kid with braces – a combination that very few girls find attractive. There’s not much I could do about my looks, so I compensated by becoming a loud-mouth – which only made matters worse.

After high school, I worked a couple of jobs and saved enough to pay my own way on a two-year mission to Germany for the Mormon Church. In addition to providing me with many valuable life lessons, my mission helped me work through some self-esteem issues. During those two years, I wasn’t allowed to date; in fact, I was required to keep the opposite sex at arm’s-length. With the pressure off I was able to stop worrying about impressing the girls and making them like me. Instead, I learned how to be myself and act like a normal human being.

While I was in Germany, Dad took a job at RCA and moved the family to Indianapolis where I returned home in May of 1982. Less than a month later, eager to try out my new-found self-confidence I attended a church young adult dance in Terre Haute.

It was there that I met the Rueschhoff sisters, Jeannie and Cindy. Both girls were extremely attractive, with brunette hair and deep brown eyes that seemed to sparkle when they smiled – which was all the time. If either of them happened to flash a smile in your direction, your heart would skip a beat or two. Working up my courage, I made my way across the floor and asked Cindy for a dance. As we talked I learned that she lived in Terre Haute and was a student at Indiana State where her father was an accounting professor.

A few dances later, Jeannie, came over, wrapped her arm around mine and begged me to dance with her for a while. As we danced, she flashed that killer smile at me and said she had a knack for guessing things about people.

“Let’s see,” she started, “You look like a Scott… no, wait… maybe Stu… no, that’s not it… is it Steve?” I was impressed. A few seconds later she was telling me all about myself: where I lived, where I worked, where I had served my mission… I figured out pretty quickly that she wasn’t really guessing, but it still worked. I couldn’t believe that such a beautiful girl had taken the time or interest to learn so much about me. I was hooked.

Still, time and distance got in the way of starting up a relationship with Jeannie. She lived over 75 miles away and I was busy working and going to college at the same time. Besides, a few girls in Indianapolis had started showing some interest in me, as well.

Then one morning about three months later, a sudden revelation jarred me awake, making me sit bolt upright in my bed. That voice in my heart said, “It’s time to prepare to get married.”

Me?! Married?! I nearly panicked. I thought about the girls I had been dating lately and had to admit that I couldn’t see myself in a serious relationship with any of them. On top of that, I was slinging pizzas for a living and still hadn’t decided what my college major should be. For the next four months, I wracked my brains and prayed my heart out, trying to figure out what my calling in life should be – how God expected me to provide for this wife He was about to send me.

Still no closer to finding an answer, November arrived. And yet I began to notice how memories of the Rueschhoff sisters kept popping into my head. This time, however, even though Jeannie had won my initial affections, it was Cindy who I couldn’t stop thinking about. I considered calling her up and asking her out on a date, but the two sisters were so close it felt awkward asking one and leaving the other one at home. I tried to convince a friend to make it a double-date, but without success. I couldn’t figure out any other solution so I decided to bide my time until the next church young adult conference, scheduled for Terre Haute in March.

In the following months, my feelings for Cindy continued to deepen and mature. By the time March finally arrived, I had worked myself into a full-blown fixation. I thought about Cindy all the time. I couldn’t stop daydreaming about how it would be: I’d walk through the conference entrance and our eyes would meet. It would be like magic; she would instantly forget the couple hundred other guys who would be there and see only me. It would be love at… well, maybe not first sight since we had already seen each other a few time, but still my love-sick imagination had everything worked out to the finest detail – except for one last thing: how to let Cindy in on the plan.

Tune in next week for Part II…

Signing out from Carlisle
Steve Scalf

* Steve Scalf is a member of the U.S. Military. Reach him at slscalf@msn.com.