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?