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Honest Men Are Good Men

I married up. I married a poor man, but I married the kindest man I’ve ever met.

It was during the World Series in 1995 that my husband and I had our second date. As we stood waiting for our table at Chin Chin on Sunset Blvd I realized that my date was missing his baseball game, it was only a few years after that when I’d know just how much of a sacrifice that is for him.

Dinner was nice, he was handsome and smart. His mother and his sisters were both housewives and he was proud of them for making that choice. He was A Nice Jewish Boy. I liked him.

He paid the bill and we ran out of the restaurant down a very steep hill to his Ford Festiva in the parking lot. Yes, he drove a Ford Festiva. No, it was not a nice one, it had neither door locks nor a gas gauge. He was dirt poor, which makes what happens next all the more admirable.

My husband (then date) took the change the waitress had given him out of his coat pocket and went to put it into his wallet. He looked at his wallet, turned his head to the side in a manner that is all to familiar to me now, and said, “Oh man, she gave me an extra twenty. Wait here, okay?”

As my date ran up the hill, in the rain, during the World Series to give $20 to a waitress that surely made much more than he did, I picked up my phone and called my mom.

“Mom, I met the man I’m going to marry.” I said.

“Ooh, have you told him yet?” She laughed.

“No, but he’ll figure it out. He’s the best man I’ve ever met.”

He proposed a little more than a year later. A year after that we were married. Tomorrow is his birthday, he remains the best man I’ve ever met.

17 thoughts on “Honest Men Are Good Men”

  1. I love that story. Love that there are still people like that out there. I don’t know your husband, but wish him a happy birthday anyway. Thank you for sharing the story and although I probably fall short more than I’d like to admit, I certainly agree that honest is an important trait to have. It’s not the only one, but it ranks up there.

    Kevin.

  2. Now THAT is a Man. Hat tip to you for not letting him go, and a hat tip to him for staying awesome.

    His kind are a dying breed.

    A VERY Happy Birthday to him indeed.

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