A Hilltown love story: The Christmas gift that secured a wife

DUANESBURG — Tuesday morning was just what we would expect for a Jan. 7 morning in the Hilltowns outside of Albany. It was dark and cold (single digits) with snow flurries.

What we didn’t expect was the wind. It howled all day right through the night into an equally dark, and cold rest of the week. Except for the wind, welcome to a January winter in the mountains and Hilltowns in upstate New York. 

The OMOTM gathered at Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner at the appointed hour for our usual good fellowship, good hot coffee, and great food. I was all set to order a waffle, with an egg and link sausage when Chris announced that the waffle-maker machine was under the weather and therefore there would be no waffles today. So I settled for my usual order of a cheese-and-sausage omelette with an English muffin.

Now for an OMOTM love story.

The room had quieted down, as it always does, while we attacked our breakfasts. All except one table. They were rather noisy the whole time with much laughter.

This particular table held some pretty important OMOTM in the form of our Scribe Emeritus John Williams, two other long-time OFs present were Pastor Jay Francis and Harold Guest and the fourth member at the table was Wally Guest.

This love story is about how Harold met and wooed Arline, his wife of 65 years.

Harold was 17 years old and Arline was 16 years old. They both went to Middleburgh High School and were in the same class.

Arline’s family lived in the town of Broome in Schoharie County while John also lived in a small town also in Schoharie County, Huntersville I think. As fate would have it, Arline’s family home was destroyed in a fire that fall and the family subsequently ended up moving much closer to where Harold lived. So now they were in the same class in the same school and lived pretty close to each other.

Not only did Harold think Arline was pretty nice, but so did his older brother. So Harold had to fend him off while he pursued Arline. He was successful in discouraging his brother.

Exceeding six feet, Harold is a substantial man today and I am sure that very few boys would want to be on his wrong side back in those days, even a brother!

As the holiday season approached, Harold wanted to give Arline a Christmas present she would never forget and would never forget who gave it to her. Keep in mind, this was a 17-year-old boy trying to buy a special gift for his 16-year-old girlfriend while they were in high school. 

There was a department store in Middleburgh at that time called Strongs. Harold, having made his decision as to what he wanted his gift to be, went to the store and talked to a lady (the owner?) about what he wanted.

She said she had exactly what he wanted and off they went up to the ladies’ department on the third floor. Sure enough, they picked out the perfect gift and the lady even gift-wrapped it for him! Good thing she did because, if Harold had wrapped it, it probably would have looked like a small version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree wrapped with two miles of scotch tape!

Arline’s family included a married older sister whose husband was a bit of, in Harold’s words, “a live wire,” sort of a fun guy to be around with a great sense of humor. In fact, I think that knowing Harold and his son Wally today, both the families were blessed with a fine sense of humor. Good thing.

The gift.

It is now Christmas morning and everyone is opening their presents. The moment of truth has arrived. With all eyes upon her, Arline opened Harold’s special gift.

It was — wait for it — a very large pair of panties! Way too big for a 16-year-old girl!

So the “live wire” future brother-in-law put them on himself over his own clothes (I told you they were rather large!) and to the delight and laughter of everyone, spent most of the rest of the day walking around wearing Arline’s Christmas present!

I remind everyone again, this was a 17-year-old’s present to his 16-year-old girl friend!

So what happened? It worked! She never forgot the present and more importantly, never forgot who gave it to her.

They dated throughout high school. Got married, and for the next 65 years loved each other as they raised a family of six kids, and had a few laughs along the way. In fact, when Harold told that story at the OMOTM breakfast on Tuesday, we all laughed one more time and shared the moment right along with him.

Those enjoying breakfast at Chris’s Chuck Wagon Diner, with or without panties, were the man of the hour himself, Harold Guest and his son, Wally Guest, Ted Feurer, Jake Lederman, Jake Herzog, Michael Kruzinski, Wm Lichliter, Frank A. Fuss, Hon Albert E. Raymond, Jamey Darrah, John Williams, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, John Jaz, Bill Bremmer (visiting from Kansas City), Henry Whipple, Herb Bahrmann, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Warren Willsey, Frank Dees, Roland Tozer, Glen Patterson, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Pastor Jay Francis, and me.