ABOUT 50 YEARS
AGO, I saw a movie which changed my life completely. The movie
was "No Man Is An Island." It was a true story, modified of course
by Hollywood, of an American sailor, George Tweed, who was trapped
on Guam when the Japanese invaded the island in World War 2.
A Filipino family living on Guam hid the sailor from the Japanese for several years - until the Americans came and drove out the Japanese, and in the process rescued George Tweed.
The part which got my attention, was also the part added by Hollywood. To have romance, Hollywood invented a daughter for the Filipino family, played by Barbara Perez, known as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines. Hollywood's added touch was that Tweed and the daughter fell in love. That was all false since George Tweed was a happily married man serving in the Navy.
But thanks to Hollywood, Barbara Perez got my attention. After watching the movie, I told myself, "Bill, that is the woman you have been seeking - the fire of the Latina, with the femininity of the Asian - the perfect woman. But where do I find her?"
Watching that movie, I made the decision that the perfect woman for me was a Filipina. But I had a major problem. I had no idea where to meet Filipinas, or at least, one I could take home to mom. That was long before I was a Christian believer, so my happy hunting grounds were the bars and night clubs I frequented. No luck there.
Someone suggested I try church. But that did not fit my schedule. And I was too healthy to need a doctor, clinic, or hospital - the Filipina nesting place. And no one told me that wee bit of useful information. So my search was in vain.
Until one fateful Wednesday evening in 1977, I was in the lounge at the Saddleback Inn Hotel, the main conference and meeting place in the Santa Ana, California area. Plus it had a terrific lounge with live music for dancing. I was there with that "little old gang of mine" - Marge, Lupe, and Dick.
As we were waiting for the music to start, Lupe looked toward the lobby and saw two ladies, one a Filipina, who had just come out of a Red Carpet Real Estate meeting. Lupe told me, "Bill, there is Rita" - a Filipina I was dating off and on. I looked and told Lupe, "No, that is not Rita - but I am going to find out who that beautiful lady is and how I can get to know her."
And that is how I solved my Filipina search problem. I went to the hotel lobby, pretending to casually notice the two ladies as I introduced myself. We chatted for a while, I got her business card - and about two weeks later, on a Saturday evening, we were on our first date.
We went to Bobby McGee's, a club in Newport Beach, briefly, to say hello to a friend. Then to the Newporter Inn for dancing. When the band took a break we walked outside by the hotel's tropical pool - and there we had our first kiss. The next morning I went with her to church at the Garden Grove Community Church, then we went to see the new movie "A Star Is Born" with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, and then finished the day having dinner at the Quiet Cannon in Dana Point.
The Quiet Cannon (now just called Cannons) sits on a hilltop overlooking the Dana Point harbor - and in the early evening the scenery of the boats and the ocean was amazing - almost as beautiful as the lady sitting beside me. After that day, we never dated anyone else.
And that is how September 2, 1977, became my lucky day. That is the day I first married my beautiful Filipina bride.
I can see that piqued your interest. "Bill, what do you mean the day you FIRST married your beautiful Filipina bride?" Glad you asked.
When we were married on September 2, 1977, we only had time for a quick weekend honeymoon in Ensenada. You can see that from the donkeys we are riding in my 1977 collage below. But please ignore my 1970s shirt! That is something I do not want to remember. On our third anniversary, even though I was still not a believer, I knew that a church wedding was important to Dory. We had the time so we arranged to have a wedding and proper honeymoon in Hawaii - on the same September 2 - but in 1980.
We wanted it to be authentic, so we did the whole thing over - blood test, wedding license, etc. Even the pastor did not know it was our second wedding. But Dory momentarily forgot! After the wedding when we were signing the license, Dory wrote as her pre-married name, Dory Gray - and then had to scratch it out and write Daludado. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practise to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott). Yet that only makes our 1980 wedding license unique.
That year, 1980, September 2 fell on Tuesday because of Labor Day. So although we had made the wedding arrangements with a local pastor and church - we still had to get the Hawaii wedding license (blood test we did in California, and no waiting period required in Hawaii then), arrange for flowers, and arrange for a photographer.
The wedding license first, unlike California where they are obtained at the court house, back then in Hawaii, we had to go to the Department of Health to get a wedding license. On the street when we asked directions to the Health Department, folks would look at Dory and say, "You know." And Dory would have to say, "No, I am from California and we are lost."
By late Tuesday morning we had everything arranged except the photographer. When we told him the wedding was that evening, no can do - but he did refer us to a photographer who could - so all was on schedule. That evening we had a beautiful wedding in a Honolulu church, attended by the pastor, his wife, and their friend. After the wedding I invited them to dinner at a restaurant on the top, 32nd floor, of a downtown building with a full view of Honolulu. Breathtaking!
Driving to the restaurant to meet them, Dory told me, "Honey, he is a pastor - so you cannot order a drink." When we were seated, the waitress come over asking if anyone would like a drink - and the first person to speak was the pastor, who ordered a cocktail. I looked at Dory, smiled, then ordered my Chivas Regal on the Rocks. Later a couple who saw that we were newlyweds, sent over a bottle of champagne. The perfect ending to a perfect day - September 2, 1980.
Then we truly began our Hawaiian Honeymoon with a a traditional Hawaiian Luau, a first for both of us. The next evening Dory insisted we go to see the Society of Seven Show at the main showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki in Honolulu.
That was my first time to see their performance - and a few years later when I had become a Christian believer, Jun Polistico, lead singer with the group we saw that night in Honolulu - had also become a believer. He left the group and was recording Christian music. As two new believers, Jun and I became close Friends and Christian brothers who love to share the Gospel - he through his musical talents and me through my writing.
That is why September 2nd is my Lucky Day. Tomorrow, Monday, September 2, 2024 - Dory and I will celebrate our 47th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my beautiful Filipina bride. One of the many blessings God has bestowed upon me.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
A Filipino family living on Guam hid the sailor from the Japanese for several years - until the Americans came and drove out the Japanese, and in the process rescued George Tweed.
The part which got my attention, was also the part added by Hollywood. To have romance, Hollywood invented a daughter for the Filipino family, played by Barbara Perez, known as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines. Hollywood's added touch was that Tweed and the daughter fell in love. That was all false since George Tweed was a happily married man serving in the Navy.
But thanks to Hollywood, Barbara Perez got my attention. After watching the movie, I told myself, "Bill, that is the woman you have been seeking - the fire of the Latina, with the femininity of the Asian - the perfect woman. But where do I find her?"
Watching that movie, I made the decision that the perfect woman for me was a Filipina. But I had a major problem. I had no idea where to meet Filipinas, or at least, one I could take home to mom. That was long before I was a Christian believer, so my happy hunting grounds were the bars and night clubs I frequented. No luck there.
Someone suggested I try church. But that did not fit my schedule. And I was too healthy to need a doctor, clinic, or hospital - the Filipina nesting place. And no one told me that wee bit of useful information. So my search was in vain.
Until one fateful Wednesday evening in 1977, I was in the lounge at the Saddleback Inn Hotel, the main conference and meeting place in the Santa Ana, California area. Plus it had a terrific lounge with live music for dancing. I was there with that "little old gang of mine" - Marge, Lupe, and Dick.
As we were waiting for the music to start, Lupe looked toward the lobby and saw two ladies, one a Filipina, who had just come out of a Red Carpet Real Estate meeting. Lupe told me, "Bill, there is Rita" - a Filipina I was dating off and on. I looked and told Lupe, "No, that is not Rita - but I am going to find out who that beautiful lady is and how I can get to know her."
And that is how I solved my Filipina search problem. I went to the hotel lobby, pretending to casually notice the two ladies as I introduced myself. We chatted for a while, I got her business card - and about two weeks later, on a Saturday evening, we were on our first date.
We went to Bobby McGee's, a club in Newport Beach, briefly, to say hello to a friend. Then to the Newporter Inn for dancing. When the band took a break we walked outside by the hotel's tropical pool - and there we had our first kiss. The next morning I went with her to church at the Garden Grove Community Church, then we went to see the new movie "A Star Is Born" with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, and then finished the day having dinner at the Quiet Cannon in Dana Point.
The Quiet Cannon (now just called Cannons) sits on a hilltop overlooking the Dana Point harbor - and in the early evening the scenery of the boats and the ocean was amazing - almost as beautiful as the lady sitting beside me. After that day, we never dated anyone else.
And that is how September 2, 1977, became my lucky day. That is the day I first married my beautiful Filipina bride.
I can see that piqued your interest. "Bill, what do you mean the day you FIRST married your beautiful Filipina bride?" Glad you asked.
When we were married on September 2, 1977, we only had time for a quick weekend honeymoon in Ensenada. You can see that from the donkeys we are riding in my 1977 collage below. But please ignore my 1970s shirt! That is something I do not want to remember. On our third anniversary, even though I was still not a believer, I knew that a church wedding was important to Dory. We had the time so we arranged to have a wedding and proper honeymoon in Hawaii - on the same September 2 - but in 1980.
We wanted it to be authentic, so we did the whole thing over - blood test, wedding license, etc. Even the pastor did not know it was our second wedding. But Dory momentarily forgot! After the wedding when we were signing the license, Dory wrote as her pre-married name, Dory Gray - and then had to scratch it out and write Daludado. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practise to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott). Yet that only makes our 1980 wedding license unique.
That year, 1980, September 2 fell on Tuesday because of Labor Day. So although we had made the wedding arrangements with a local pastor and church - we still had to get the Hawaii wedding license (blood test we did in California, and no waiting period required in Hawaii then), arrange for flowers, and arrange for a photographer.
The wedding license first, unlike California where they are obtained at the court house, back then in Hawaii, we had to go to the Department of Health to get a wedding license. On the street when we asked directions to the Health Department, folks would look at Dory and say, "You know." And Dory would have to say, "No, I am from California and we are lost."
By late Tuesday morning we had everything arranged except the photographer. When we told him the wedding was that evening, no can do - but he did refer us to a photographer who could - so all was on schedule. That evening we had a beautiful wedding in a Honolulu church, attended by the pastor, his wife, and their friend. After the wedding I invited them to dinner at a restaurant on the top, 32nd floor, of a downtown building with a full view of Honolulu. Breathtaking!
Driving to the restaurant to meet them, Dory told me, "Honey, he is a pastor - so you cannot order a drink." When we were seated, the waitress come over asking if anyone would like a drink - and the first person to speak was the pastor, who ordered a cocktail. I looked at Dory, smiled, then ordered my Chivas Regal on the Rocks. Later a couple who saw that we were newlyweds, sent over a bottle of champagne. The perfect ending to a perfect day - September 2, 1980.
Then we truly began our Hawaiian Honeymoon with a a traditional Hawaiian Luau, a first for both of us. The next evening Dory insisted we go to see the Society of Seven Show at the main showroom of the Outrigger Waikiki in Honolulu.
That was my first time to see their performance - and a few years later when I had become a Christian believer, Jun Polistico, lead singer with the group we saw that night in Honolulu - had also become a believer. He left the group and was recording Christian music. As two new believers, Jun and I became close Friends and Christian brothers who love to share the Gospel - he through his musical talents and me through my writing.
That is why September 2nd is my Lucky Day. Tomorrow, Monday, September 2, 2024 - Dory and I will celebrate our 47th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my beautiful Filipina bride. One of the many blessings God has bestowed upon me.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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