-By John Armor
Some names just belong together. Mention one, and the other comes to mind automatically. Romeo and Juliet. Tom and Jerry. Currier and Ives. So it is with Randy and Susan, who came up this weekend to hike a part of the Bartram Trail and had dinner with us on Saturday.
Randy is E. Randolph Wootton, Jr., a classmate and friend of mine for six years at the Gilman School in Baltimore. Susan is Susan White Wootton, also a friend at the same time, who attended Notre Dame Preparatory School in Baltimore.
I graduated in a class of 66, as I recall. There were exactly two of my classmates who had dated the same girl for all their years since they first discovered girls. Both pairs married, had children, went into their professions. In one couple, Walter Leach tragically died young, twenty-five years ago. So, that left Randy and Susan as the one, lifetime pair.
Several of us in the class dated Susan on occasion. She was, and is, attractive, witty, with a fine sense of humor. But there was never any doubt that Randy was her guy. End of discussion. And the same was true for Randy. Susan was, since they began dating at about age 15 his lady. End of discussion.
Several of us tried to figure out why this was so. Well, there was the point that Randy was an early starter. He was a snappy dresser and a good dancer, at a time before most of us had no clue about either point. We learned, but Randy learned first.
Susan was, and is, a good dancer. She was also generous in her talents. There are more than a few of us from the class who are over the fear of ballroom dancing, and therefore more acceptable to our wives and girlfriends, because Susan taught us to dance, with great patience, half a century ago. That’s one at a time, by the way. One wife, one girlfriend, at one time.
Now, I don’t want to give a false impression. Randy and Susan have not had a life of sweetness and light, morning to night, year after year. I would no more talk about the crises they’ve faced over the years. Suffice to say, they have had their share of experiences which might have driven them apart. But none did. These two people are better than that, stronger than that.
Probably, all who read my columns know one couple like Randy and Susan. You know a few who’ve been together since their teen years, and now are parents and grandparents living out the words of the poet, Robert Browning, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.”
This is an effort in which none of us can ever match the experiences of Randy and Susan in my case, or whoever is the lifetime couple in your memory. Most of us have lived our lives by fits and starts. I refer to myself as a serial monogamist, having been married a number of times. One can learn from such experiences, but one cannot make them go away.
As you can tell, I have the deepest respect for people who’ve taken on the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and stayed together and grown stronger and better. Not perfect, mind you, but better. Randy and Susan did not do this for the purpose of serving as an example. But an example they are, and a shining one.
The rest of us can still do the best we can, starting where we are now. That, too, is worth the effort.
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John Armor is a graduate of Yale, and Maryland Law School, and has 33 years practice at law in the US Supreme Court. Mr. Armor has authored seven books and over 750 articles. Armor happily lives on a mountaintop in the Blue Ridge. He can be reached at: John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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