I Met Helaine 31 Years Ago Today

As I rounded a blind corner a young woman who had just started at the station approached from the other direction. Boom! I knocked her on her butt.

July 28, 1980 was sunny summer day. I remember that.

It didn’t begin as a special Monday when I made my pre-dawn drive from Center City Philadelphia to my job in Bala Cynwyd. It turned out to be one of the most significant days of my life!

Indulge me if you’ve heard this story before.

I was the morning drive disk jockey at WIFI in Philadelphia. I was desperately trying to get my first job on TV. I had tapes out everywhere.

Sometime around 9:30 AM I got a call from Farrell Meisel. He offered me the opportunity to co-host PM Magazine/Buffalo at WGR-TV.

I said yes!

There were no PCs or cellphones in 1980. I had to wait until 10:00 AM to leave the studio and find my friends.

I bolted as soon as I could and began to rush toward the radio station’s front door. As I rounded a blind corner a young woman who had just started at the station approached from the other direction. Boom! I knocked her on her butt.

That was Helaine! That was how we met.

A friend of mine (my secretive friend from the San Fernando Valley) was working for a major music act at the time. They were coming to Philadelphia that weekend. I asked Helaine if she’d like to go to his concert with me?

It was only after figuring out the date Barry Manilow played the Mann Music Center in Philly that we were able to finally figure out this date, July 28th. For the last 31 years we only had an approximation.

Thank you Internet for holding all data known to man including Manilow’s concert schedule from 1980.

Two weeks later I was gone. Helaine and I had no contact for a year and a half&#185!

We did finally get together again. We have lived happily ever after. I’ll save that story for another time.

As fateful days go how many are more significant than 7/28/80 is to Helaine and me? The entire path of our lives changed in the course of 30 minutes. I think that’s worth celebrating!

&#185 – I was an idiot. I’m sure all’s well that end’s well, but I was an idiot. Did I mention I was an idiot?

20 thoughts on “I Met Helaine 31 Years Ago Today”

  1. It may have happened that way, but let´s just say you ¨knocked her off her feet!¨ But what a first meeting! Just happened to bump into her! Many more 7-28´s to come!

  2. She was really knocked off her feet by your first meeting!! Nice that you have the date to remember…

    Bev wants to know if you remember Jerry Blavitt (The Geeter with the Heater or the Boss with the Hot Sauce) She’s from Philly also. She also said to tell you that Scarpelli’s (in Torrington) has the best Philly Cheese Steak in Ct that she’s found so far.

  3. I lived in Philly during that time period too. Only Philadelphians would know how to pronounce Bala Cynwyd. Cute story 🙂

  4. I was totally involved in the story them WHAM – the end…….am waiting for how you got back together after 1 1//2 yrs. You must have had some kind of winning smile or was it the work of angels telling you “hey we worked hard to coincide the knock down and off you go – we think not”. So please pick up where you left off except fast forward to the 2nd meeting of Helaine. Does that mean you celebrate 2 life changing days?

  5. Thanks for sharing your romantic story. I was living in Cherry Hill, NJ at that time. You triggered lovely memories for me, too.

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