European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 29, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Byann Quin Lennew York times i it Myrto to to  Ach night Lor the last week i nematic 01 love i a curb the boy and girl have been shadows in the doorway of the oust next door. Even when it was raining lightning bisecting the sky. They were there entangled in one of Whoso kisses Hal last forever Hal end Only Whan the oxygen Supply gives Oul. One night the boy spoke As the Doris sniffed at the Steps below do you know How much i love this girl he asked a rhetorical boast to a Middle aged stranger. Of god i said lugging on Tho leashes and though the lovers might have thought my response indicated disapproval it was really the Shock of recognition Sharp and Silver As the lightning. I remember being in love like this entering Inlo a slate More like a Ironica disease than a relationship listening to one Catchy piece of Bubble gum music Over and Over again and getting the same Odd feeling in the Slomach and Tho Chest. When i was in High school the song was by the Beach boys would t it to Nice though h so Rena make it that much bolter when we Unsay goodnight and slay together. The big payoff. Nol so much sex at least for Tho girls As a kind of mythical Domestic try napkins and Matching place Mats unlimited kissing no adults Lowers every Day. What our parents referred to As playing House. Luckily Many of us know that before we marry or there would be even More disasters than we now suffer through Many More people packing away an expensive wedding album in some Corner of the basement where it is hoped in will mildew. When i was younger i tended to fall in love Wilh just one thing a kind of bravado a certain smile. Tho girl in the doorway i am convinced has fallen for Blond hair and a crooked Grin i even fell in love with a certain set of Bony shoulders in a sport jacket years ago but unlike a look my friends who went through More than a few or. Wrongs and have now settled Down with or. Maybe i married the person inside the sport jacket. And i held on like a dog with a Bone to a love affair Between a girl whose idea of awesome responsibility was a psych midterm and a boy who painted his derm room Black Long after that boy and girl were gone. I held onto what has been going on in that doorway Long past Trie Lime when i was really too old to believe in magic. Truth is i still believe in magic and in s still there ail Hough there s no Point denying that it is occasionally submerged beneath a welter of Cereal bowls dirty uphold shirts Lale nights Early mornings and All the other everyday things that Bubble gum music never reflects but whal i did t know about marriage the less magical pans of in has become perhaps More important to to. Now we have history As Well 35 chemistry an enormous part of my past does not exist without my husband an enormous part of my present too i still fool somehow that Itimus do not really happen Lomo unless i have told them to him. I Don t mean this nonsense about being Best tronds which i have never been Able to Cotton to our relationship is too judgmental Loo demanding too prickly to have much in common Wilh the quiet Waters of Friendship. Like emotional acupuncturists to know just whore to Pul Iho Needle. And do but to a e each other s family. And while i know people who have Cut their families Loose who think them insignificant or too troublesome to be part of their lives. I am not one of those people. I came Lale to the discovery that we would to related by marriage. I once made a fool of myself in front of a Friend in the emergency room of a Small resort Hospital Afler my husband s Slomach and a bad feed dam had had an Umlor Lunate meeting Are either o you related to him the nurse asked and we both Shook our Heads until our Friend prodded me gently in the Side. Of Well. I m his wife i said there is something so settled and stodgy about turning a great Romance into next o Kin on an emergency room form and something so soothing and special too. I suppose Hal is what i find so dreadful about divorce lovers Are supposed to leave you in the lurch bul your family is supposed to stick by you forever. You can pick your friends but you can t pick your relations the Folksy folks always say a but in his one Case you can. You just Don t realize it at the time. What does it mean that i do not envy the two of them standing in he doorway locked together like Romeo and Julie in the Tomb i suppose when i was their age i would have assumed it meant that i was old and desiccated. But of course what has really happened is to at i know the difference now Between it lungs that last and those that Don a Between dedication and infatuation that does t mean i Don t still gel an enormous kick Oul of infatuation the exciting ephemera the punch in the Slomach the adrenaline to the hear. At a cocktail party the other night i looked across a crowded room and was Lakin by a stranger in Hall prof tvs. A handsome terribly Young looking Man with a Halo of Back lighted curls. And Ihen he turned and i realized that in was the stranger i am married to the beneficiary on my insurance policy the sport jacket the love of my life. Erma Bombeck recently i celebrated one of Hose traumatic birthdays the one with an "0" at the end of it. I know. All birthdays ending in 0 Are traumatic my Amity took me to a Small restaurant and two waiters and a cocktail waitress balanced a flaming inferno in their hands and Sang Happy birthday Ono of Idem called me Edna it was nol the gala i had anticipated far someone who had reached one of the More impressive o s. I am still depressed. I seem to be at an awkward age of my life i m too old to slay awake for a strip ram and too Young for David Wolper to stage a fireworks display in the new York Harbor i Don t understand it. Evo Woody is seems Lohu a a great i tie when they Hil those traumatic 0 s. Fca if a Orang when Donald Duck it Rod 50. Ali try gave u his h to for him Paradox and in �a.eiige, last Diharce months 1  a things Tike that for Page 16 the stars and stripes someone who never Pul his pants on one leg at a time. Or Tor Hal Mailer bothered to put them on at All. He sure got a lot of attention. When the Golden Gale Bridge turned 50. It got a 50 gun Salute food festivals regattas and three minutes on entertainment  hit me with a Little paint every so often and i d have Tony Bennett in my hip pocket too. There in t a year goes by that we Don t celebrate Barbie s birthday and she s been a teen Ager for 28 years for crying out loud. Take Hal rubber band off her Ponytail Ana her chins would break Bolt Knees i Don l care whal she looks like her time clock has nol Only run out it stepped 20 years ago ana1 they re always making a fuss Ovici belly Crul to s a of Usu digit birthdays arid How Jot loss she 13 i d to ageless Lau it i had in i co Hulti. Moused my her   five minutes Inci Luis final approval on monday. June 29, 1987 the retouching of All my photographs. Next year Well be treated to a big Celebration when Superman turns 50. Unbelievable Here we have a nation with garbage barges floating up and Down our Rivers looking for a port Tammy and pm Down to their last Hundred thou miniskirts invading our stores and More bugs in our embassy in Russia than in my son s apartment and where is the guardian of truth and the american Way when we need him planning his birthday Bash that s where. And just when you think