Memories of Alane

Eventually the drive-in staff recovered from tongue-on-floor syndrome and got their act back together. The window guy went back to reading off the order and giving us the total we owed. I don't remember the total, but I handed the guy some bills, and got about 75 cents in change back. A couple of quarters and a small handful of other coins. I casually turned to the right, dumped all the coins down the front of Alane's t-shirt between her breasts, looked straight ahead, grinned, and drove off. Lynn dissolved into hysterics a second time. It turned out to be a very tasty meal, despite the somewhat unusual service.

I liked jewelry, and so did Alane. Some time during the summer we stopped in the jewelry department of a major store to see what they had. She had excellent taste in jewelry, as she had spent a year or so working in a jewelry store. We found an absolutely gorgeous necklace, but it was about twice as much money as I had. I was working, but I wasn't flush. We sighed and were going to give it up, when the salesman said we could put it on layaway for a 30% down payment. I knew that I could save up enough money to buy it in a few months, so we did that. I had already decided that this was going to be one of Alane's Christmas presents, but she didn't know that.

Come early December, I went back to the store to claim my prize. They had no problem finding the layaway receipt, but then told me the full amount was due. I pointed out that I'd made a 30% deposit, so that had already been paid. They said that there was no record of a deposit. I pointed out that they didn't accept a layaway without a 30% deposit, and that was store policy, printed on the signs at the counter. I picked up one and turned it around to show her. She then realized that I must have made a deposit, but she didn't have a record to prove it. She suggested that I come back in half an hour while they did some research.

I bummed around the mall for half an hour or so, and went back to the layaway department. The woman came back and said that they had pulled the register tapes from the time of the transaction, and realized that the guy had royally screwed up what he had entered on the cash register, not only on my transaction, but several others. We quickly cleared up the problem of the deposit, I paid the remainder I'd expected to pay, and walked off with a nice jewelry box in my pocket, containing even nicer jewelry. (Of course I'd opened the box and made sure the right thing was there before I'd handed over any money.) So now I had a nice small jewelry box, and I only had to figure out how to wrap it.

Feeling a bit creative, I got an empty computer paper box from work and brought it home. A box of fanfold computer paper was about 13 x 13 x 15 inches; that is, pretty big. Not something you would expect jewelry in.

Of course the package would need some wrapping paper and a name tag. I was a theater techie and knew how to use a soldering iron; I didn't have to use a commercial printed tag from the drug store counter. I went out and bought a couple of strings of "twinkie" Christmas lights. These used a thin tubular bulb in a plastic push socket that plugged into the string of green wire. The whole string was designed to run on 110V, but the individual lamps ran on only a very few volts. They could easily be run from a battery.

I took a hunk of cardboard and cut it to the size of the side of the box, then wrote ALANE on it very carefully in light pencil, using up as much space as I could. The name covered the whole side of the box. Then I sorted through the lamps from the strings, picked out colors, and laid out a bunch of lamps following the shape of the letters. I got out some wire and the soldering iron, and made up new series strings, one or two for each letter. The wires all ran through the back of the piece of cardboard into the bottom of the box. Now I had a sign with Alane's name that could light up on the side of the box.

I spent a little more time doing a logic design in CMOS chips, and wired up a board that would sleep for about 5 minutes, then spend 25 seconds lighting up the name one letter at a time, from the left. Then the sign would turn off for another five minutes. Once I had all that working, it was time to start wrapping things up. I taped the sign to the side of the box, ran the wires inside, connected them to the board, and put in a BIG battery. Incandescent lamps were power-hungry things, and even only running 30 seconds out of every 5.5 minutes, they were going to need a lot of amp-hours to keep the sign running 24 hours a day for ten days. I ended up using a motorcycle battery. This made the box quite heavy. Again, not something you would expect of jewelry.

I stuffed a bunch of packing around the battery and sign parts to keep them from moving, then covered it all over with a sheet of cardboard. I had made a tray about two inches deep at the top of the box. I put in the necklace box, then another sheet of thin cardboard over it, a few sheets of artfully wrinkled tissue paper over that, and pinned the necklace down in the shape of a heart. More tissue paper, and finally the lid of the box. Then I wrapped the whole box in four layers of tissue paper so that you couldn't make out the lamps in the sign, and put a big red ribbon and bow around it. Then it was off to Alane's parent's house to deliver the present. This was about a week before Christmas.

After Alane's mother opened the door for me, she called to Alane that I was here. Alane came running, wrapped her arms around me, and started kissing me very thoroughly. Her mother was standing a few feet away, watching us. She smiled and shook her head, then broke into a grin. Unlike some parents, she and her husband still remembered what romance and love were, and weren't about to stop their daughter from doing something they would happily do themselves. (Yes, I saw them kissing more than once, and they were not shy about enjoying the event.)

Once we finally caught our breath, I said that I had Christmas presents in the car to put under the tree. She wasn't dressed to go out in public, so I walked down to the curb and collected all the presents. I piled the smaller presents on the top of the big box, and carefully carried the big box with the sign facing my chest, so that if it lit up, nobody would see it.

Soon the presents were arranged under the tree, and Alane and I sat down on the couch to cuddle, kiss, and gaze at the Christmas tree, the presents, and the decorations. I hadn't mentioned to anyone that the present lit up. Alane was leaning into me and looking at me (and I was looking at her), so the tree and presents were only in her peripheral vision. I could see them clearly.

The first time the sign lit up Alane was looking at me and didn't catch it. The second time, she was still looking at me, but caught a glow of the lights out of the corner of her eye. She quickly looked over to see what had lit up, but the sign turned off just before she looked, and there was nothing to see. She asked me if I'd seen something, and I just played dumb. She stared at the presents for a while, but nothing happened; the sign only lit up once every five minutes, and had at least three minutes to go.

She went back to looking at me as we talked, but it was clear that she was reserving some attention for the presents, just in case anything happened. She didn't see the A light up, and I immediately distracted her with a kiss, until the whole sign had lit up with her name. I broke the kiss when the sign had a second or two left to run. As she pulled back from me, she finally realized that there was a light over by the presents. She turned quickly, and just managed to see the whole ALANE illuminated for a fraction of a second before it turned off. She looked back at me with some wonder in her eyes, and asked me if she had really seen her name in lights on the package. I continued to play dumb.

While I was playing dumb, Alane was by no means dumb. She had earned her scholarship to college with her brains. You need to be pretty nimble in the head to be an actress, because you never know when you will have to cover for someone muffing a line or missing an entrance. The show could become complete improvisation for perhaps as much as five or ten minutes if something really bad went wrong.

Not being dumb, she had started to have a strong suspicion that there was something going on I hadn't told her about. So this time she kept her eyes on the tree, and when the sign lit up she caught the whole sequence. She must have thought I'd done something marvelous, because she was all over me for the next five minutes. I reciprocated. Even when her mother came out of the kitchen to see what all the smooching noises were Alane didn't slow down.

Finally she wound down, gave me a peck on the nose, and, with her arms still around my neck and sitting half in my lap, she turned to her mother and told her that the big package had just lit up with her name. Of course it wasn't lit now, and her mother wondered if Alane was having her on. Alane insisted that it lit up. I sat there saying nothing, with a carefully neutral smile on my face. Finally they agreed to watch the package for a while, and see if anything really did happen. By then most of five minutes had passed, and in a few more seconds the side of the package did indeed light up, and it did indeed say ALANE.

They were both what I considered to be 'suitably impressed'. You are wondering why? After all, anyone could knock out something like that with an Arduino in about five minutes, and you could use LED strips to make the letters in only a few minutes. Heck, you could design and 3D print a fancy cursive sign in a few hours. But there were no Arduinos, no laptops, no 3D printers, and no LED strips in those days. It really did take some work and cleverness to do that, back then. I was proud of that sign.

Pretty soon everyone in the family knew that Alane had a present that lit up with her name under the tree. There was a fair amount of chatter about it in the first few hours after its arrival, but that naturally died down fairly quickly. You can't keep expressing amazement about something for days. Still, Alane seemed to remain pleased about having a light-up Christmas card on her present.

Christmas finally arrived, and Alane had made very sure that I would be there when the family got around to opening presents. I was over for dinner, which was as usual excellent. Alane's mother was a wonderful cook. (I'm sorry to keep calling her 'Alane's mother'. I knew her name back then, as I knew Alane's father's name, and the name of her other married sister. Heck, I'd met her grandparents and knew their names. But that was a long time ago, my memory fades, and I can no longer remember any of their names except for Alane and Lynn.)

I was quite surprised when a number of the presents turned out to be for me. I'd expected a present from Alane, but had half expected to get it in her bed. But no, she had given me a present, as had everyone in her family! I don't remember what any of them were now, but I remember being both very surprised and grateful that they thought I was worth that effort. Of course I'd brought presents for the whole family, but I was still almost shocked that they had given me presents! After all, this was their house and their Christmas celebration!

Alane was quite happy when she pulled the top off the box and found the necklace. She seemed especially pleased that it was pinned in a heart shape, though if anything her mother was more impressed. She grinned, and made sure her husband got to see it before Alane pulled it loose. I clipped it around her neck for her.

Alane told me later that she thought I'd forgotten about the layaway necklace. She had expected to get it months sooner. I just grinned and told her that, nope, I'd always planned it as a surprise Christmas present. Now though, I wonder if I made a mistake doing that, rather than getting it for her the moment I had the money. I got her other jewelry in the meantime, a couple pairs of earrings she really liked, and I think another necklace. But still... Should I have given her that necklace months sooner, and come up with a lesser Christmas present? I'll never know.

Random scenes from my memories, in only vague time order:

Alane smoked when we first met. I recall the taste of tobacco in her mouth when we kissed. I didn't really care for the taste, which is why I never smoked myself. I think she gave up cigs sometime during our relationship, but I don't remember when.

It was an earlier age, and smoking was accepted by all, unless it was a particularly obnoxious cigar. And despite what you have been taught, everyone knew that tobacco was addictive, and also knew that it could be bad for your health. This wasn't something that "people only learned when'' the tobacco trials of the 1990s happened. That was just when the governments gave themselves the power to reinstitute prohibition.

Pat, Gary, Alane and I had gone to the Bob's Big Boy roadhouse for a late-night meal. The place was far out in the country on a main road, and one of the few places that stayed open after midnight. I don't recall if we had all gone out to see a show someplace, or if it was after closing a performance for the night at the college; I think perhaps it was the latter, and Alane had been an actress in the show.

We were in a curved corner booth. Gary was on the far left, Pat was on the diagonal of the curve in the table, then me, and finally Alane on my right. We were finishing up, and the table was covered in the remains of four meals. Most of us had had some form of hamburger.

Gary liked to come up with impromptu things most other people would never think of. While the rest of us were talking, he started picking through the remains of the food, putting bits of hamburger bun, some broken french fries, and one of Alane's discarded cigarette buts together. Suddenly he had a crab on the table. A crab with a cigarette butt hanging out of the side of its mouth. The french fries made crab legs, the hamburger bun was the carapace, a couple of toothpicks for eyes, and a little lettuce for a tail. And the cigarette. We all dissolved in laughter when we realized what had appeared on the plate before us. We left it for the waitress.

Alane and I were lying on the couch in front of the TV in the lounge room of her home. Her parents had gone to bed, Lynn was staying with a friend. We had the house to ourselves. As with most any time we could spend time alone, we had lost a lot of our clothes, and I was humping away with her legs wrapped around my waist. I heard a click behind me, and the door to the rest of the house opened. Her mother was still up, and was letting the family dog out into the rumpus room. There was a little hesitation before the door closed. Alane said "Well, now we're even. She caught me in the act, just like the time I caught her." We continued what we had been doing.

Another time we were in my living room, cuddling on the sofa. She felt it was a time to celebrate, and had brought a bottle of champagne. I remember it rolling around on the floor of the car as we drove home. When she popped it open she was startled when the champagne gushed out about six feet. I looked at her somewhat disappointed expression and laughed. "Well, what did you expect after it had gotten nicely shaken up in the car?" But she hadn't expected that, I think only having had champagne at parties before. But we had fun polishing off the half a bottle that was left. It did turn out to be a very nice celebration, especially a while later in my bed. I still have a lamp in the living room with a few brown spots on the lampshade, where it had gotten sprayed with the champagne.

Alane and I were out and about. Maybe it was Disneyland, maybe the local county fair. She was wearing tight jeans, her usual two inch heels, and a frilly blouse. We were doing a lot of walking, and the pace was too fast to have our arms around each other. I hooked a couple of fingers in her rear belt loop, and used my arm as a leash. This became a habit when we were walking.

We got to someplace where we were moving slower, and I unhooked myself from her, just walking close beside her. She made a somewhat pained expression and said "Noooo, don't let go! Hang on to me! I want to feel kept!" Well, how can you say no to a request like that?

I was talking to Alane on the phone before going over to her house to see her. She asked me to stop by the drugstore and get some things for her. I needed to get a pack of the contraceptives she used, a spray can of whipped cream, and a stretchy hair comb, the kind that are made in a circle. Ohhh kay. This might turn out to be an interesting evening.

I duly made the necessary purchases and headed over to her place. I was barely inside the door before she thanked me, quite thoroughly. I think that came after she greeted me quite thoroughly, though the two events blended together. "I got everything you wanted. The one thing I can't figure out, what is the hair comb for?" She looked at my eyes for a moment, then her eyes glittered and she laughed. "That's for me, to hold my hair back. The comb that I had broke." She put her arms around my head to make sure I wouldn't get away, melted against me, and kissed me. The effort to make sure I wouldn't get away was wasted, I wasn't going anywhere. But it made the kiss a whole lot more fun.

I came over to her house to visit Alane, and rang the doorbell. Lynn answered the door, invited me in, and told me Alane was taking a shower and would be ready soon. The hall to the front door intersected with a long hall that ran the length of the house, and the bathroom was straight down at the end of that hall. A moment later the bathroom door opened, and Alane stepped out, dressed in a towel around her hair. She saw me and strutted about half way down the hall toward me and then ran the rest of the way (which was spectacular) wrapping me in her arms. Alane made sure as much as possible of our bodies were in contact, then increased that amount with her lips and tongue. I was standing there, fully dressed, holding a wet naked woman in my arms. Three feet behind her Lynn was standing there, fully dressed, watching us and grinning. Alane knew she was there, and didn't care in the slightest.

Alane's parents went out of town for a few days, leaving the house to their kids. Alane had told me this was happening, and to get there about 6 PM, after her parents left. I got there and Alane met me at the door. We hugged and kissed as we always did, then finally went inside and closed the door. We spent maybe half an hour sitting around the kitchen and living room, trying to be a "proper" couple. But Alane's bedroom was just down the hall, and there was a bed there waiting to be used. After about 20 minutes she dragged me down the hall to her room, and we promptly started exercising her bed. Since when the cat's away the mice will play, I spent the night with her.

The next day, after we finally stumbled out of the bedroom and took a shower together, Lynn was there, smiling at us. She told me that when she'd come home the night before she saw my car and knew I was there. She walked in, looked to her left into the kitchen, didn't see anyone, so looked in the living room. It was empty and dark too. She went off to see if I was in the rumpus room. Nope, nobody home. Then she suddenly realized. "Oh! I know where he is!" she said, and then told me she had a big grin on her face thinking about it. I think I spent the next two nights in Alane's bed before her parents came home. When they did I was still there, all dressed and proper. They assumed I'd just come over about half an hour before, after I got back from work. Nope. Alane and I had had about 48 hours in each other's arms, and loved every moment of it.