Joe Smoe and Shirley Temple

My fiancee' and I met at a coffee house in Breckenridge CO. Breckenridge is a great sized town. When it is peak tourist season, you can get lost in the crowd, but only the locals know where the great places are to eat and chill. You will quickly get to know the owners and feel right at home. Lisa's coffee house was famous for her homemade bakery treats. That is what kept me coming back every Saturday.

I got to know Lisa, and she became my mother away from home. I nickname those I love, and she became my Shirley Temple. She had beautiful curly Locks. Her husband, Joeseph, was the principal at the elementary school where I was a teacher's aid. I called him Joe Smoe. He came in one Saturday with the new High School Coach. We all began to talk, and stayed after closing sipping on coffee. The coach and I hit it off immediately, and were inseperable from that point on. His name was Randal.

We are very competitive, and love our community. Breckenridge has scavenger hunts every now and then to strengthen the community. Local businesses donate money, and in return become part of the fun. Participating businesses, have clues in exchange for you purchasing an item, or listening to what the business offers.You have to be familiar with the town, or find someone who does in order to get to the next clue. All the money raised goes to the affordable housing fund. People start out together , but receive different clues to ease congestion in small shops, but the person to get the last clue, and answer the beginning question at the right place wins.

The last hunt we were on, started us out with the question "What is the Bride's favorite sweet?" Randal and I did well, and rushed through the first half. We had directives to take certain pictures. One was a specific area of the skate rink. Another was The High school gym, elementary school third grade statue. Then we reached an impasse. Lisa's coffee shop was the last stop, but the clue we received stumped us. It asked, "What does Joe know about shirley temples?" We called or went by all of the bars, and wound up with nothing. So we decided to try and figure out the final question. The cake shop and bridal store were dead ends, We picked up our pictures from the photo shop, and took them back to Lisa's to go over.

"What is the sweetest places out of all of these if I were a bride?" I commented that if I were a bride I suppose the sweetest place would be the skating rink. Randal asked me why, and I laughed. He knew why. I bragged to my girlfriends all the time that the skating rink confirmed to me Randal would be a good father. One time a little girl fell, and he picked her up and dusted her off. He then held her hand and skated her to her parents on the other side. It was so sweet.

"Well if you were a bride, what would be your favorite sweet?" Randal asked.
"I'm not a bride you goof."
"Hey Shirley Temple, tell me what this lovely lady's favorite sweet is."
I commented that if I didn't know any better, that the scavenger hunt knew very private things about us.
Lisa put a plate of brownies in front of me, and Randal asked, "So would you like to be a bride?"
In the middle of the chocolate curls was a ring. Then everything formed in my head. The whole town was in on Randals proposal. Of course I said, "yes", and we still compete in the local scavenger hunts.

add a comment