Sunsets

By thetime I get out to the Point it is still an hour until sunset. The sky is largely clear with the sun shining brightly on the lake. There are some clouds low down on the western horizon and there is likely a storm somewhere over in that direction because the waves that are striking the rocks twenty feet below me are nearly a foot and a half high. They crash and the resulting plume of water rises nearly to my height before falling back to the rocky shore far below.

That's one of the things that make this place so interesting. It is a small point of land which sticks out into Lake Michigan but it is enclosed by two widely angled arms which funnel the waves inwards. It is really a point within a shallow bay. To make it even more unique the rocky cliffs making up the shoreline here are undercut with a narrow notch leading up the cliff face from the top of this undercut cave like formation. Thus when a wave comes rolling in to break against the rocky spaces carved at the bottom, it fairly explodes upwards, sending fantastic sprays up the rock face towards the sky. Even in relatively calm periods the small waves breaking still provide an unexpected response.

The point is located in a tract of land of some thirty five acres, which was left to the county for a park seventy some years ago. The county has never had the money to really develop it, so it remains an area of second growth forest with over a thousand feet of shoreline. There are a couple of hiking trails but not much else. Besides, there is a state park with developed picnic areas along the shore on either side which tends to draw visitors away from the country park. This means more than a mile of the lake shore is public land with no other buildings or development.

The first time I came here was with Tom and that was almost six decades ago. We've repeated that visit hundreds of times since and have always considered this as "our" place. It has a nice rock ledge - where I am now sitting - that provides a comfortable resting place with a great view out over the lake. The sound from the breaking waves combines with the nearly ever present breeze to lull one into a lovely relaxed state. To these are often added the occasional cries of gulls, ducks or geese. But sound is just the icing on the cake. The view out over the water towards the west, while presenting nothing fixed or solid except the wooded arms of the bay, fills one's visual sense; the slow, rolling, never ceasing motion of the waves, the splash of the spray as they break, the very occasional view of a slow moving tanker or ore carrier in the distance. Even knowing that there is a distant shore out of sight some sixty or eighty miles away does nothing to disturb the peace of the scene spread out before one. But the absolutely best time is at sunset. Often distant clouds catch the sun. While sometimes their hearts remain dark, their edges are often turned to molten gold or fiery orange or the dull red of dying embers.

It is the twelfth of August and for nearly sixty years Tom and I have come out here together. Not every day or even every month, but hundreds of times over that span and, if we can, always on the twelfth of August. I think this is actually the first time I have ever come out here without him - I know it's the first August twelfth. It feels so unusual now to sit here by myself. It has always been the two of us.

I close my eyes and let the sounds flood my ears and the warm late afternoon sun bathe my face. I just catch myself before I reach out for Tom's hand, and I think back to the first time, to when it all began for the two of us.

It wasin my junior year of high school. My name is Lynn Bryant. In my junior year I was five foot five, with blue eyes and dark blonde hair down past my shoulders. I wasn't skinny but, as were most of the girls then, was fairly slim and in pretty good shape physically. In Michigan around a small town a lot of the things to do were active and usually out of doors - especially at that time. I mean no video games, no cell phones, no computers. There was television - two channels - but nothing much of interest during the daytime. No, we played outside a lot - games, biking, hiking, skating or snowshoeing during the winter, swimming during the summer....that kind of thing.

And of course there were boys. At seventeen they were one of the major areas of interest. I don't mean to give the impression that they were a totally separate activity - most of the things we did involved both groups. Well, sure, there were times when the girls did something by themselves. I think mostly just to have an excuse to be able to talk about the boys. They were probably doing the same thing, talking about us. But there were also many couple activities. There were football games and other school sports. There were dances. Our town and two nearby ones each had a movie theater, as well as two or three drive-in movies that were within reasonable distances. There were hamburger joints and a miniature golf course. And of course there were a number of "lovers' lanes" and other "parking" places. Yeah, anytime the car isn't moving and the engine is turned off, you are parked. Sure, but you know what I mean.

I wasn't going with any one boy but dated four or five. All of them dated other girls as well, but none of us had a problem with that. There were a few in our school that I was sure were sleeping together but not any of my group. That sort of thing didn't happen that much just then. Or at least wasn't talked about as much.

Ours was not a huge school, nor was it a tiny one, but there were about eighty of us in my class. That meant that we all pretty much knew each other well enough to recognize and speak to, even if they weren't in our own group. So when a new face appeared, everyone knew it within a day or two at the most. Tom transferred there in late February. His family had moved there from somewhere in Ohio. Northern Ohio at least, so snow wasn't something totally unknown to him.

He was about five inches taller than me, had medium brown hair and blue eyes a little lighter than my own. He looked like he might have played football but I later found that his build was not the result of that, but rather of other physical activity. He had a ready smile and easy going manner which quickly let him fit in. He migrated towards our group and by the time he had been there six weeks he was as much a part of it as any of us.

I found him easy to be with and we seemed to work or play together quite well. By late March he had dated a couple of the girls in our group but he hadn't asked me out yet. I think he likely would have quite soon, but before that could happen the school had a Sadie Hawkins Day dance and I asked him.

The dance went quite well. We got along fine, even managing to tease and playfully insult each other without going too far. I found he could dance well, never stepping on my feet and giving me a firm lead. Afterwards we went for something to eat and when he took me home I gave him a good night kiss. The first time I had ever kissed a guy on a first date.

After that he did ask me out but we didn't become exclusive or anything. He dated other girls and I dated other boys. This pattern continued throughout the summer and on through senior year. By spring of senior year almost everyone in our group was eighteen. This mostly meant that we had a little more leeway in where we could go and what we could do, but otherwise didn't change things very much.

That year had an unusually warm spring. In mid April Tom asked me if I would like to go on a picnic and a hike that Saturday. I quickly agreed and when Saturday dawned it was clear and sunny with a high of seventy five predicted. He picked me up early - about ten - and we planned on being gone the rest of the day. I had made some sandwiches for our lunch and Tom had said he would bring things for a picnic supper.

We drove over to a state forest area about fifty miles away and parked at a trail head. Backpacks weren't nearly as common at that time but we each had a small day pack and quickly set out for our hike. It wasn't mountain climbing or anything, but a nice walk through the flower filled woods and up and down some small hills. We found a clearing under an ancient maple that must have been at least a hundred fifty years old and sat down to lunch. While we ate we talked and among other things found that we were both planning on going to the same college the next fall...the state university a couple hundred miles away.

We finished our walk and arrived back at the car about three. On the drive back Tom suggested we eat at the state park on the shore near our town and I readily agreed. We made our way to the picnic grounds on the shore next to the swimming area. As anyone who has lived around the Great Lakes knows, swimming in them is usually a rather chilling experience, even in late summer. The shallow area here was OK in July and August, but now the water would probably not be more than ten or twenty degrees above freezing, so even with the warm weather the picnic area wasn't crowded. Just a couple of other tables were occupied. Tom brought out a cooler with hamburgers and soon we had a fire going in one of the grills.

While we waited for the coals to get ready, we talked. I had been to this park a number of times but somehow had never gone over to the undeveloped county area next to it. Now Tom mentioned that he had wandered over there once before and that there was a nice place to look out over the lake. I said that sometime we could go over and see it.

We cooked the hamburgers and heated some beans and made a supper of that and some chips. It was after five when we finished but we didn't have any particular plans for the rest of the evening. We tossed a couple of ideas back and forth and finally decided on a round or so of miniature golf and headed over there. We played one round and then ran into John and Linda, two others from our group, and played a round with them. It was still daylight when we finished and I asked if we could go over to the lookout Tom had mentioned.

We headed back towards the shore and after we parked, Tom led me along a trail which traced a winding path through the woods until we emerged at the point. I was fascinated with the waves which were sending their spray several feet up the cliff face and quite enchanted with the entire place. The sun was nearing the horizon and we moved to sit side by side on the rock ledge to watch. As the colors began to change, Tom wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I snuggled a little closer to him.

We remained like that for perhaps twenty minutes as the sun slipped below the edge and the color faded from the sky. Then Tom turned to me and lifted my face for a kiss. It wasn't like I had never kissed him before. Remember, I said he was the first boy I had ever kissed on a first date. And since then we had spent a fair amount of time engaged in such activities. I don't mean to give the impression that we had gone very far in those directions but there had been some necking and sometimes hands had slid over backs and bottoms, but always outside of clothes.

Now we began some serious kissing but we weren't getting really carried away or anything. Just good, clean teenage fun, you might say. Anyway it was another three hours before we finally pulled apart and started back. The sun had long set, of course, but there was a bright moon and it wasn't a problem finding our way back to the car.

That wasthe first time but over the rest of spring and the summer we went back there probably another seven or eight times, generally at sunset. We still dated others but I don't think Tom ever took anyone else out there. I know I never went out there with another boy.

By September college was approaching. I think everyone in our group was going to school somewhere, but Tom and I somehow seemed to be the only ones going to State. Maybe a little surprising considering that there would be twenty five thousand other students there. We would both be living in dorms, although in different ones. Coed dorms were just beginning at that time and they were nothing like they are today. Men and women were housed in separate wings and the women had a curfew and were locked in after eleven thirty weekdays and after one on weekends. However, Tom was in an all male dorm and I was in one with only women. And, of course, men and women were never allowed above the lobby in each other's dorms.

College was a new experience - especially for a small town girl like me. Still, I think I handled it pretty well. I really didn't know anyone there since Tom and I didn't share any classes and lived in different places, but I had no problem getting along. I'd always been a pretty good student so classes didn't present any real problems, although they did require more work than I was used to.

Socially, I didn't really have much of a problem either. I got along well with my roommate Judy, and easily and quickly made friends in my classes. By the second week I began to receive invitations from guys and dated a number of them. There were a couple who interested me enough to spend some time making out a bit, although nothing really serious ever developed. The campus had a lot of wooded areas and it was quite common for couples to disappear into the shadows as long as the weather remained warm enough. I'm sure many of them were doing much more than kissing but I was never one of them.

At the end of the first term I went home for Christmas and when I climbed onto the Greyhound to return for the next term, Tom was sitting by one of the windows. I quickly sat down beside him and we spent the next several hours catching up on what had been going on. He was getting along fine in his classes and otherwise. I found that, like me, he had dated a number of women but none seriously.

When we arrived and were getting our suitcases he suddenly turned to me and said, "Lynn, I've missed you. Would you like to go to a movie tomorrow?"

"I'd love to. I've missed you too, Tom."

He gave me a time he said he'd be at my dorm and that we could catch a movie and then maybe go get a pizza or something. I agreed and smiled at him and then, on impulse, leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.

The next afternoon was a Saturday and Tom arrived downstairs just when he'd said he would. The movie was good and afterwards we went to the Pit for pizza and cokes. No alcohol then - the entire county was dry. We talked and laughed and by the time we left about nine thirty we were both feeling quite comfortable with each other again. Just as we had been the previous summer. Holding hands, we strolled around the big oval between the Union and the library and then along the path by the river. The campus was still about half empty with many of the students yet to return before registration on Monday but there were enough around to keep it from looking empty. Mostly they were couples doing the same things we were.

When the big clock tower sounded the chimes at ten, it found us in the pines on the hill behind Demonstration Hall. We weren't studying evergreens. No, we were catching up on other things we had missed since the previous summer. There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was probably in the mid twenties, but somehow we never noticed the cold. Other things kept us quite warm and comfortable. By the time he returned me to my dorm at a quarter of one we felt as though the last several months had never separated us.

Tom andI began to date regularly and by February we were going out at least once or twice a week and had pretty well stopped dating anyone else. Most of these dates ended with some time in the shadows. We engaged in a lot of kissing and hands tended to wander quite a bit, but always outside of clothing. It wasn't just the cold weather that caused that. No, Tom and I had become good friends and were definitely in the process of becoming more than that, but we did limit our explorations. Probably this was mostly due to the times and to the way we had been raised but there was also the fact that both of us wanted to be really sure before we did much more.

One Saturday in late February we had gone to an early afternoon movie and then for a walk around the campus. It's a large campus, over two miles across. That Saturday there were several inches of new snow on the ground and the flakes had continued coming down most of the day. However by the time we had been walking for a half hour, the snow stopped and the sky began to clear. There was some construction going on - a lot of it, in fact. At one site the top soil had been piled in a hill some fifteen or twenty feet high. We got to the hill just before sunset and climbed it for the view. The sky had cleared but there were still clouds near the western horizon.

We stood entranced, our arms around each other, watching the shifting color as the sun slowly began to sink from sight. The low light threw long, long blue shadows across the dazzling white of the new snow while the area around them was flooded with flaming orange. The clouds had their dark centers surrounded with golden and orange edges. I stared, my head leaning against Tom's shoulder. "Isn't that one of the most beautiful sights you've ever seen?" I asked quietly.

For a few seconds Tom didn't answer and I turned to look at him. Instead of staring at the sunset he was looking at me. Then quietly he said, "Yes, it's lovely but not nearly so much as you." He hesitated for just a second or two and then firmly said, "Lynn, I love you."

I think my heart must have skipped a beat - or two - or more. I had felt the same for some weeks but had been afraid to say anything. We both knew we took those words seriously and believed we'd only say them to one person. Then the words burst from me and I wrapped my arms around Tom's neck, pulling him oh so tightly against me. "I love you, Tom. I love you and always will."

We never saw the rest of that sunset. I don't think we saw anything except each other's eyes.

By theend of the school year we had certainly become an exclusive couple. We were both still virgins - that wasn't so uncommon then - but we had definitely found we thoroughly enjoyed long necking and petting sessions. That, at least, wasn't unusual then and when the weather began to warm at least one weekend night would find the two of us, blanket under arm, heading out into the large wood lots along with a great many other couples. Fortunately there were a lot of wooded areas, so we could always find some privacy.

When school was out for the year we both returned to our home town and found part time jobs. I played waitress at a small coffee shop near one of the tourist campgrounds in the area and Tom found some construction work. Still, we managed to date at least once a week. Since neither of us had a lot of money, many of these dates were just picnics or hikes or swimming or something like that. We did go out to movies a number of times and while neither of us had our own car, we did each have use of one. This made drive-ins available. Generally on a Friday or Saturday night there would be a double or triple feature so that for fifty cents each (fifty cents a car load on special occasions) there would be several dozen cars of teenagers parked before the big screens. I doubt that even half of them ever watched the show.

On the twelfth of August Tom and I both happened to be off work so we decided to make a whole day of it. We packed food, donned bathing suits under our other clothes, and headed for the state park. The day was quite hot - high near ninety - and the shallow bay had warmed enough by then to allow swimming without coming out covered with ice. We swam. We lay in the sun on the small sand beach. We cooked hamburgers for lunch. After lunch we lay in the sun, resting some more for a while and then went swimming once again. Once two other couples we knew from high school came by and we spent a little time catching up on things with them.