I grew up in Santa Cruz, California and went to Catholic school for 12 years. Santa Cruz has a pretty good Portuguese population, mostly from the Azores. It has an annual Holy Ghost parade and festival.
Turn the Wayback Machine to The first Sunday in July, 7 July 1968, Sherman.
This was the date of the Festival back then. I had never been to one, it was the summer after my Junior year in high school, I was 17.
I went to the parade evidently with a friend I don't remember and then we went to the dance after the parade with a cioppino feed.
There at the dance I met Laurie. We talked and she lived in Peabody, Mass. just outside of Boston, and was visiting her older sister who lived in Sunnyvale. Laurie had come with friends of her sisters to the festival.
I liked her and asked if we could be pen pals and she said yes and gave me her address. Laurie was 15.
We wrote back and forth over the next year and I went into the USN in July of 69 after graduation. After boot camp I was stationed on the USS Enterprise in the shipyards of Newport News, VA.
In spring of 1970, I asked if I could come visit during her spring break. She asked her parents and they said yes! I flew up then in April of 1970. I was 19 and she was 17.
They picked me up at the airport, let me stay at their house, took me to New Hampshire to see my first real snow, Laurie and I saw Grand Funk Railroad in Lowell, Mass at a small venue. Then they dropped me back at the airport and I flew back to Newport News.
We still wrote to each other for the next 4-5 years. I got out of the Navy in 73. Her parents retired and Laurie graduated high school. Then they moved to Florida. Sometime shortly after this the penpal thing stopped.
In 76 I got married, in 95 divorced.
The internet became a thing. I was over at my daughters in 2013 and she had a Facebook account. I searched it and found Laurie and sent her a message with my email address. She responded!
Laurie was married and had 2 children and lived in Phoenix, AZ.
I had planned to go to an Overland Expo in May of 2014 in Flagstaff. I asked if I could visit. She explained it to her husband and they said yes.
I rode my motorcycle to the Expo during May 16-18.
The expo trip can be read here;
https://poppageno.blogspot.com/2014/06/overland-expo-2014.html
Taking my time I was in Phoenix a couple of days after.
Wayne was a good guy while I was there, they fed me and took me up on South Mtn to show me the sights.
I left and did a tour of Arizona and went home. Over the next years we sent Christmas and Birthday cards to each other.
Late 2025 I sent a Christmas card wishing Laurie and Wayne the best. She told me then that he had passed 2 years earlier from cancer.
We texted and emailed. For her June 8th birthday I made her a gift and she needed help reassembling it. So she called. It was the first time we talked on the phone. We talked for 5 hours!
There was a connection there and we both felt it. We have talked and texted and emailed a LOT since then.
Laurie and Wayne had moved to Flagstaff to be near their daughter and granddaughter. Now 3 and three quarters years old, Laurie watches her once a week. Her son lives near Ft Collins, Co and she sees his family less frequently.
A couple weeks ago Laurie's daughter told her they were going to San Diego for a week, leaving Laurie with not much to do.
I asked her to come here for the week.
Which she did. Today she is on her way home and currently is 394 miles from her home.
She stayed with me and we hit it off. I knew I loved her before she left Flagstaff and she loved me. I am 75 and Laurie is 73, old people in love!
While here I took her to where I grew up and to the ocean and to the Portuguese Hall where we met 58 years ago.
I can't believe there is a woman who drove 743 miles over 12 hours to see me!
My turn to go visit her when it cools down in the desert as I have no a/c.
Fairy tales do happen!
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