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Show t Romeo o o o MM Here is the candid story of a wife whose sense of values underwent a radical change in 15 years of marriage. , ' rn lm onna air I was cleaning out dresser drawers when I noticed a clipping. . Tin 23," it read, "and Tve been married lor five years to a fine man who is also a good provider. ButheV to unexciting! He wants to stay hems : evenincs. - He walks around the house in his undershirt, drops ashes on the carpet, and forgets things like anniversaries. The romance has cone out of my life. Shall I look for it somewhere else?" The letter was signed "Desperate." Desperate" might .: have lived m ' Atlanta, Amarillo, Enterprise, or anywhere. Only she didn't! You see, though I blush, to admit it now, I was . ; .Desperate." Ten years ago I sent out that little SOS to a lovelorn column. Nine years later the ashes are still on the carpet and the anniversaries still slip by' unnoticed. But. instead of being desperate that George isn't Romeo, Im over-Joy- now. ed ' "Why the changeT youTl ask. Fra not sure I know. Haybe it was partly in the answer .thatf came to that forlorn note:f "Buck up, you lucky girl, supposing he drank!" Uaybe I've just slipped into a middle-age- d jutjTbulTnry 15 years of that in is guess marriage I've done a little growing and a little looking end from my peep into the homes of friends Fd say my life looks very good.' ' George and I started off our marriage like any other young couple in a golden cloud of illusions. I dreamed of a country .cottage, a com- : ' radely dog, baby.-- George Family WUy picture-boo- k had his dreams, letter you've already read. It too: the. dashing young reporter stealing a "beat," and seems funny now, but it didn't then. quickly finding success. Five years later our dreams Oh, for a man with manwere gathering dust The ners, I thought, a attentive chap. Then country cottage was really a crowded apartment, the dbg I met one. My old friend was gone after a bout with Ethel moved back home with her husband Herbert He was the mange, the ladder to success had endless rungs, and ; everything I thought George the perfect baby decided to should have been: tall, hand' be twins. some, impeccably tailored. ' Those years were filled Wherever Ethel went Herwith struggle: doctor bills, bert was there first She rent, midnight caJJs from the couldn't walk through a door, paper midnight wails from .smoke a cigarette, or climb the babies. Finally came the into a car without dutiful atdreadful night the feast that tentions from Herbert Herbert didn't drop ashes 'turned into a fiasco. It hapon carpets or forget annipens in most families! It was our fifth anniver- versaries. There was always a gift to sary t and somehow I had got corsage or a tly the twins Into their cribs, the mark the big occasion. But somehow I sensed that Ethel roast into the oven, and myself into my best dinner dress. was the pretty puppet pulled I lit the candles on the table on springs by the master. His and hummed happily as I constant courtesy and perfect manners seemed an automatic wrapped George's present Then I waited, and waited, reaction, with little feeling and waited. I waited until the behind them. Herbert was candles were burned out, the somehow too good to be true, and true is exactly what he roast cold. At 2 in the morning George's key clicked in wasn't The etiquette turned out to be a thin veneer, the lock, and he slumped exhausted into a chair. There masking indifference and unwas no sign of a memento for faithfulness, of the first order. Fve known other "friends, the big occasion. "How could you do this to married to other Herberts, me . . . tonight?" I blazed since then. Somehow on close through uncontrollable sobs. scrutiny they don't hold up; What the devil are ybii certajnly " Ethel's ntarriage talking about?" he growled. didn't She summed it up "What's tonight?" neatly the day she got her divorce. "Lord, if Herbert There was a bitter argument, punctuated by tears had only been rude or forgeand the angry recriminations tfulor human." stored up through five years George is very human, inof marriage. I sobbed about deed. When I asked him selfishness and bad manners. angrily once why he didn't when Finally, I stormed off to bed stay on the street-sid- e with the flattering words, we were walking together, he "Some Romeo you are!" snorted "Nuts, that's an anti' I did more than storm, howquated custom. When houses ever. I wrote the "Desperate" had big eaves which stretched Uagttt Jsm If, ItSi well-groom- ed, over the pavement and when old house, but I'm not so sure people threw their garbage anymore what romance really out the windows, the man is. I know full well that you protected the woman. But can't keep a fire blazing for there aren't any bananas on 15 years. And I rather suspect Main Street today!" the companionship of a maGeorge finds birthdays and ture relationship, like a glowanniversaries a colossal huring coal, gives the real and dle. I wish he didn't! But I lasting warmth. Sometimes now when I realize now that he pitches in with love and help and unget that "Desperate" feeling, when the twins get overly derstanding every day. adolescent and George's faults Lighting my own cigarettes? Pulling my chair to .loom large, I remember anthe table? Holding the door other marriage, and another for me? It's not chivalrous, wife who had a man with to be sure. But then again, faults. She found them during when knighthood was in her courtship days. "Miss flower the wife blended in Todd," the young suitor said with the scenery. From my to her, "I want to dance with too-cos- :, i . i iA r A husband and his wife may argue about going out at night when he prefers to stay at home. hard-worki- ng taste of chivalry, 111 take my independence and strike my own match thankfully. As for the ashes and undershirts, the older I get the more I realize that these are minor faults, the imperfections which add up to make a person. You don't need to love them and you can learn to overlook them. And finally, romance? I suppose Fm settling like an own 20th-centu- ry you the toorst sort of way." Later that night Mary Todd glanced at her slippers, " badly scuffed by her partner's awkward feet She turned to her cousin merrily and said, "Abraham Lincoln did dance with me the toorst sort of way! - Yes, I'm gratefufmy ,- hus- band isn't Romeo! Among other things, if he were, I might have to be the ever-youand flawless Juliet ng -r '!'- -. J. |