Back in 1999 I drove to Piqua to see my girlfriend every weekend. (A three hour trip each way) We got engaged on Oct. 23 1999 in a most unromantic way. But not for lack of planning. The idea I was planning was to go to Charleston Falls, in Miami County Ohio, and propose to her by the waterfall. But it was a rainy day. Not one to give up hope completely on the weather, I drove to Huber Heights to see a movie, if my memory serves me well it was Double Jeopardy. The movie was rather good, but definitely not one to help with any romantic cause. At this point I still wore my trench coat, and had the ring box in the pocket, along with a pack of Tic-Tacs, so the rattling of the box didn’t get noticed. But she hates that coat, and I couldn’t really transfer the ring without her knowing, and I rather liked wearing it since it was raining, unlike the leather coat I wanted to keep dry. Exiting after the movie we discovered it was still raining. That sure can make a day seem even longer, but now I had given up on Charleston falls, but being that I was home for the weekend, and had the ring on me, I wasn’t about to give up and retreat for another time. So on the ride home, and a rather round about way of going, taking 45 minutes, a good bit longer than it should, I started to threaten to put a Tic-Tac on her tongue if she didn’t quit sticking it out at me. She started to stick it out to spite me by now, and right after turning off of experimental farm road, I said “that’s it, your getting a tic-tac” but instead pulled out the box with the ring box inside it and wordlessly handed it to her. The looks of shock, surprise, and joy made the next 10 minutes of the ride to the mall rather quiet, but she said yes. It was another week before we started to tell family, the first person to know that Ruthie knew was Charlie, who was exiting the mall while we were entering it. I don’t know who found out after that in what order, but I remember telling my dad over the phone (I was at kings island and my dad lives in south Carolina, and there was a Halloween fest there)
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