Procession to Covenant

Episode 94 - Procession to Covenant

Official transcript: https://www.cheynemusic.com/transcripts

Hosts: Jan, Rob, Dee, & Jim; Guests: Bill & Linda Himes

We conclude our time with Bill & Linda Himes with discussions about Bill’s composition process, his conducting, and how Bill & Linda got together.

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Transcript

[Music]

JIM (voice-over): And now we reach our final visit with Bill and Linda Himes. In our first two episodes, you might recall, we traced their lives from high school to the present day - first Linda, and then Bill - and if any of those stories made your jaw drop to the floor, let me say this in my defense. I offered them the veto on any story they shared. I gave them an out where they could say, “On second thought, better erase that part.” To their credit, they never did. Something about the statute of limitations.

[Music] 

JIM (voice-over): Today’s episode is in three segments called together from the remains of that day’s conversation. We begin with Bill’s insights into his creative process.

JIM: Were you the first soloist on “Journey into Peace?”

BILL: Oh, yeah. Because I wrote it for me. 

JIM: Okay. It’s a transition piece, you know, journey into peace.

BILL: Mm-hmm.

JIM: And we’re gonna end up with “All your anxiety, all your care.”

BILL: Mm-hmm.

JIM: But the euphonium starts not la da dum [sings first 3 notes of “All your anxiety,”] but it starts la da dum [sings first 3 notes of “Journey into Peace,” which are an inversion of the first 3 notes of “All your anxiety.”]

BILL: A very angular, searching, kind of thing…

JIM: But are those first three notes a deliberate upside down of the first three notes of “All your anxiety”? 

BILL: I don’t think so. It could have been a subconscious thing. I didn’t really I don’t too much think in a very calculated way. 

JIM: This is exactly what I need to know. Because when you hear it, “Wait a minute. That’s kind of like the underside of what he’s gonna say later on.”

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: And so my question was gonna be like, “Does this just happen because this is the way people write? Does this happen by calculation? Did you expect the band to get it? Did you expect the audience to get it? Or is it is it just something that happens?” 

BILL: Well, and you know this too I think, but you know when you’re you’re just starting out with an idea and this idea develops the opening segment is solo euphonium unaccompanied, just it goes on for 10 or 11 bars. It’s not atonal, but it’s very angular. And it’s searching. So you believe in that, and I know I’m gonna go into “All your anxiety, all your care, bring to the mercy seat, leave it there,” in this sense of relief from trying to do everything yourself, instead of just turning it over to God and saying, “Okay, help me through this.” And then finally that’s your journey into peace when you resolve, like, “I can’t do it on my own. It’s in your hands.” And then it just - and it finishes with just a little triad at the end of the cornets are playing a fifth and the euphonium crawls up with that opening lyric and ends up right on the third. But as you’re writing and you know you want to go on this tune, but it’s not always conscious that as you’re going, you figure, “Oh, you know I could work it this way.”

For example, recently on a podcast over in England, a couple of guys did a complete autopsy of our wedding music, “Procession to Covenant.” And they said stuff about this music that I had no idea was there, but it is there.

JIM: Yeah.

BILL: And they were saying, “Yeah, it’s just so amazing how he shaped that whole melody on ‘All That I Am.’” But I never would have thought of that. I was just thinking of a th uh something that would…

JIM: [sings opening line from “Procession to Covenant.”] 

BILL: Yeah, but the same expanding interval. [sings opening line from “All That I Am.”] You know that kind of thing. But they’re not always conscious things, but they could be subconscious things that are connecting, and then…

JIM: Well it’s just it’s the vocabulary that is Bill. And so…

BILL: Hmm.

JIM: …the is a gesture, this is a gesture, and it just if it sounds right you do it and then later on you look back. I think all the good writers are like that. It’s they’re just writing from the the instinct, from the heart if you like…

BILL: Mm-hmm.

JIM: …from the, “I know where I’m going and I know how to get there.” And then you look back at it and you look at the steps that you were taking along the way. But in terms…

BILL: I remember Eric Ball saying something like that. Like sometime,  you know he was looking at one of his pieces and he said, “Then I look and I go, ‘And I did this,’” you know, because he doesn’t know how it came together, you know. 

JIM: Well talking about the discipline of writing, is it true that you were finishing “Jubilance” as Peggy was playing it?

[Laughter]

BILL: No, but it did get - it did get finished up before we went on our England tour. We went to England in 1987. And it was our first trip, my first trip with the [Chicago] Staff Band in England, and there are a lot of notable things there, even had an audience with Queen Elizabeth while I was there, which is pretty cool. But that fall, Norman Bearcroft came over with the International Staff Songsters. They were doing a tour, and he was the impresario of all this Royal Albert Hall stuff. And he knew we were coming. He said, “Now when that program comes, I need you to - I’d like to have a featured soloist, I’d like a major work, and something that’s just a little lighter,” you know. And I said, “Okay.” So we did the Thanksgiving concert together. I said, “I got this light piece I think you’ll find where it works called ‘Jericho Revisited’ and it’s a narrator and band. It’s a comedy piece, but,” and I said, “And I’m working on a solo for Peggy.” I didn’t get started on that until the new year. And in fact I think it was finished like, maybe, late April. And we were going over like first of June or something like that. I know we had one weekend out where she got to actually play it out.

I had this third piece, which I will not name because it’s a a dear friend of mine and I was really sorry it didn’t happen, but I said, “And I’d like to play this piece, too.” And Norman said, “Nah, no, you need to write something.” I go, “I’ve already written two pieces out of three. I don’t think we’re here to to sell me. And this is a good piece.” “No, no, you’ve got to write something.” And had I been older and wiser, which I was not then, early 30s, I would have said, “Well, no, I’m doing this.” But instead, I said, “Okay.”

So I’m working on this major work that was, I mean, I was writing it on the tour. I had about half of it done and it’s - it was called “Ultrachrome, a light came out of darkness,” and it’s a complex piece and it had a complex thought. It was, like, that Jesus came into the world as the light of the world, and took on him the ultimate in darkness that we could have the light. That was the whole idea. So it’s a very deep thought and it was - and, and like “To the Chief Musician,” it had a a bit of speaking, it had just a little bit of a rhythmic chanting kind of thing, just one spot where they had to say, “Darkness will cover the earth. Deep darkness will cover…” you know, it’s that that kind of thing. But there was a little narrative scriptures and then there’s a two or three points where the band had to sing.

So now I’ve got maybe half of it done when we’re on the plane. And every night we’re in a different town. It’s a two-week tour And I’m always billeted at the bandmaster’s house, which is usually not very big because the bandmaster - his whole life is doing the band, you know. So, and I’d say, “Thank you very much, uh you can go to bed now,” you know, and then I would write some more, and so the thing was finally finished when I was - it was the Friday before we - the Saturday. Like the night before. We played it out for the first time in Exeter, England, nonstop, and then the next night was in the Royal Albert Hall with the speaking, the singing, the whole thing. It holds up. It’s a complex piece though, and I really felt bad for the band because, you know, and it was all pen and ink.

JAN: Oh gosh.

BILL: You know, so, because you’d copy the part and then you’d have to see if the corps had a photocopy machine and make more parts and, “Okay let’s play a little bit more of it today while we’re in this theater,” you know, or whatever. Yeah, they never forgave me for that. 

JAN: No, that’s significant. So working under pressure. 

BILL: Uh-huh. 

JAN: Working under pressure. 

BILL: Uh-huh. 

JAN: Why? How is that that that works for you? 

BILL: Well, there’s nothing like the inspiration of a deadline, but…

JAN: Don’t you get like…

ROB: Jan’s hands are sweating right now. 

JAN: I am. Right now I want to go into a fetal position. 

BILL: I don’t purposely do it to create inspiration, you know…

JAN: It’s just…

BILL: …in fact, you probably have a - where you just have a little fragment of a thought, you got a book with just four bars of this or that, you know.

JIM: Yeay.

BILL: Just little dribbles and bits. But these little blurbs.

JAN: Yeah.

BILL: And every now and then like the main theme of “[To] the Chief Musician,” when I but da da da da da da da da [sings opening motif of “To the Chief Musician”] was - it was written down ten years before I ever used it. But I just didn’t know where I was gonna use it. You know, and then I finally I had this piece and I thought, “Ah, this is where it - this is its home,” but… 

JIM: I remember at CMI once you were talking about some chord progression you had just learned. It was a jazzy thing. And since then I’ve learned it’s a dominant sharp nine.

BILL: Hm-hmm.

JIM: And what you would do is, um, well, in F. Okay, so you got in your right hand you’ve got an A, E flat, A flat…

BILL: A flat, right.

JIM: …and then you’ve got the F in the in the left hand then you just do this by fourths and fifths up and down and this comes down half steps all the way down.

BILL: Yeah. You can also do it by tritones, where you hold that chord with the F, and you go to B natural, and now it becomes…

JIM: Right. Tritone substitution.

BILL: [sings bass line with tritone substitutions.]

JIM: Right. And you were doing this - someone - you were gonna accompany someone that Sunday. And so I just happen to be around again and so you’re trying this thing out. And then you and he looked at each other kind of like, “This isn’t working.” And you just threw it away. 

BILL: But then, I mean, when when something’s really pressed upon you, now it forces you to make a decision. “Are you going to go that way or this way?” I gotta, well, okay, this way. I will say though that, too, there are things I do that are just calculated that I just want to do, like, I did a book while I was out in Colorado this summer that was just self-initiated. It’s called “Christmas for Two.” And it’s a carol book…

JAN: Yeah.

BILL: …that you can play with any two like instruments.

JAN: I like that, yeah.

BILL: And you don’t have to have four, as much as I love Caroller’s favorites, but it doesn’t work unless you have all four. And and you can’t take the first cornet and the second cornet and play duets because you’ll end up on a drone most of the time because of the way the four-part harmony has to work. So I thought, I’m just gonna, you know, I’m gonna try this because what I would do playing on the kettle with my friend Mick who we share a granddaughter together, I would just give him part one and say, “Name a tune,” and then I would just harmonize to it. So I thought, “I’m going to write down some of this stuff.” So I did 70 Christmas carols, all public domain, and that was put together in time for this last Christmas and Andrew Wainwright published it. And it’s - he said, “Yeah, it’s a bestseller.” It’s kind of [doing] really well. 

JIM: I remember, speaking of Christmas and your schedule, I remember one CMI in 1974 where you did a United Session on a collection of music that became known as “Christmas Short and Suite.”

BILL: Oh yeah.

JIM: You remember that? And again you started off by saying, “You know, well, here it is in August, and let’s talk about how we can do new Christmas music.” You did that. In the faculty band that morning, Leslie Condon is there and he’s saying, “Did I hear Christmas music?” And everyone’s saying, “No, what are you talking about?” And I’m the only idiot that said, “Oh yeah, that was on.” And Peggy gave me an eye, like, “What is wrong with you?” I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Peggy do that to you.

BILL: Yes. Oh, yes.

JIM: But, “What is wrong with you?” Yeah. I just didn’t get the joke right away that that that was it. And I remember that actually uh when we were on kettles at Hudson’s…

BILL: Mm-hmm.

JIM: …when you came with a couple of guys - Hudson South - you came with a couple of guys from Michigan…

BILL: A couple of Michigan guys, yeah.

JIM: And uh you brought this out in manuscript, at least the beginning of it.

BILL: Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. I don’t know how far - how far it was. Hey Skye.

JIM (voice-over): Yeah, we recorded this at Jan and Rob’s house, and that was their dog Skye, a black Labrador retriever, who joined the conversation to say, “Hey, I’m here too, and if you wanted to pet me, I’d be okay with that.” So I did. And then her tail started wagging and beat against the wall, so we stopped for a dog pause. Dogs are great. I should have left her part in.

Speaking of beats, let’s talk conducting. Every conductor has her or his style. We have the reserved gestures of a Richard Strauss or a Pierre Boulez. And then we have the energy and enthusiasm of a Marin Alsop or Gustavo Dudamel. Then there’s the case of Jean-Baptiste Lully, during the French Baroque, who stabbed himself in his foot while conducting, and died from the resulting gangrene.

Bill’s conducting is somewhere in the middle of all that. It’s direct, practical, expressive, with clear preparatory beats, laser-focused cues by hand and eye. And his left hand has this idiosyncratic tenuto gesture when it moves from beat three into four. I began this part of the conversation at the University of Michigan.

JIM: Was Elizabeth Green at Michigan?

BILL: Yes. I took every class she offered. 

JIM: Was she your…

BILL: She was wonderful. 

JIM: You talked about someone there that had - and I remember you saying something about some sort of a Spanish muscle or something of conducting. I don’t know who that was.

BILL: Oh, that was . Theo Alcántara.

JIM: Okay.

BILL: Theo Alcántara, he was Spanish, but he guest lectured in our class, and I learned a very good lesson from. He says, “Just conduct using just your first digit. Okay, now lock that, and just your hand. Okay, now lock that, use just your forearm. Now lock that, use your whole arm. This is what you have to work with, but most of the time it’s right here.” Green was really, she was wonderful. She was a Christian, but never said anything about her faith. You never knew. But she’s a graduate of Wheaton.

JAN: Ah!

JIM: Oh. She’s that Christian.

BILL: She’s that Christian.

LINDA: Oh, that Christian. 

BILL: But she was a wonderful - I took every class she offered. In fact, I talked to Ray Bowes about her book, The Modern Conductor. He said, “Oh, I read it.”

JIM: Yeah.

BILL: You know, it’s a standard…

JIM: Yeah.

BILL: …thing. But she was so practical and so sensible, and she taught education methods, too, because she was a string player. I took and I had her for Violin 111 for two semesters. With fingers that fat, imagine how that would. 

LINDA: I can’t imagine him playing violin.

JIM: It’s funny because the…

JAN: No.

JIM: …the cover of that book…

BILL: Uh-huh.

JIM: …is the worst conducting gesture I’ve ever seen. 

BILL: Yeah. Yeah.

JIM: Actors who conduct. Is there anyone that you’ve seen in a movie that is good? I have this theory that actors are trained to react…

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: …and conductors have to prepare.

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: And this uh - I mean even walking by - I’m not saying I skipped out of Chorus anytime - but listening to Fischer teach. It was always preparatory.

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: Everything was preparatory.

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: In what you’re showing, what’s about to happen. And I think actors are taught to react. And I - so you watch it.

JAN: Yeah. 

JIM: The best I saw was Cate Blanchett in “Tár.”

BILL: Oh yeah, I did see that.

JIM: Except she’s got this horrible French horn cue. Because right when the French horns do something, she - it’s in Mahler - and right when the French horns do it, she’s doing this at the same time. [makes a gesture]

BILL: No, no, no. Yeah.

JIM: And I’m just thinking, “Oh that hurt, that hurt.”

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: But she she seemed pretty well - I wasn’t… 

BILL: Who’s the guy that played Bernstein in his…?

JIM: Bradley Cooper.

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: His was all correct. But a millisecond too late…

BILL: Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm.

JIM: …because he was doing it right on the music and he said, “No, you gotta move that earlier and show them what’s gonna happen. And then it would work.” Because Bernstein in that in that performance, - the “Resurrection”…

BILL: Mm-hmm.

JIM: …that they do at the end. He’s got like five minutes of that in there. And you watch the original Bernstein and you’re just thinking, “He’s just in ecstasy right now…

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: …He’s just he’s having a wonderful time.”

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: And he’s - he was always a really…

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: …demonstrative anyway. But…

BILL: Oh yeah.

JIM: …but the uh um - Cooper imitates his motions.

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: But not - and it’s I think…

BILL: He studied him, but he doesn’t understand. 

JIM: but it’s it’s not in front. And I’ve I’ve thought, “I wonder if actors can’t do it because…

BILL: Yeah.

JIM: …they’re supposed to react to what’s happening rather than prepare it.

ROB: I’ve learned so much. 

LINDA: Yeah, great, right.

BILL: You can do this. Anyone can do this.

JIM (voice-over): For this final segment, let’s bring Bill and Linda together, which they’ve already done - how shall we say? - in an unexpected way.

JIM: When was the first time you found out that you were gonna marry Linda? 

BILL: Well that’s what I refer to as “The Ambush.”

LINDA: Mm-hmm.

[Laughter]

JAN: She’s smarter than she looks.

BILL: Yeah.

LINDA: Mm-hmm.

JAN: I mean, well.

LINDA: Can you explain that?

BILL: But it goes back to what I said before. She’s a person of real conviction, you know, so I’m out at Echo Grove campus as a guest. And I had to fly back, I think, before the camp was over. I think Greg Payton had me in for you know just a couple of days. And I’ve known Linda forever and she said, “You know, sometime when you have a few minutes I need to talk to you about something.” “Oh, okay, fine.” So it’s now - I’m ready to catch a plane.

LINDA: Yeah.

BILL: So I said, “Okay, I’m gonna be gone this afternoon so I can, I can talk to you now, I guess.” And she says, “Well, it’s just - and I feel a little awkward telling you this, but for like the last year the Lord has laid it on my heart that I should marry you.” Uncharacteristically silent.

LINDA: True. True.

BILL: How can I let her down easy here? You know, how can I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but, but I said, “You know, I know you to be a person of real conviction. I know you believe what you say, but I don’t share your vision.” And she says, “I felt I needed to tell you that. I won’t bring this up again.” You know, so I ran back to Chicago. I mean, you know it’s like, I thought, “Boy, that was weird.” You know. I’m but…

JAN: Linda was never going to get married. We all knew Linda was never going to get married. 

LINDA: Right. Right 

JAN: Just the most amazing thing. 

LINDA: It is, because my philosophy all along had been, “I’m not looking for anyone. But if God brings someone into my life that will enhance my ministry, then I will entertain that.” Okay? “But if it will replace my ministry, I’m not interested. I’ve not willing to give up my ministry for a marriage.” 

BILL: And initially this wasn’t even your vision, was it? 

LINDA: No, it was Susan Bukiewicz. Yeah.

JAN: Oh Lord.

LINDA: Right. 

JAN: I had forgotten that part.

LINDA: Yes, ’cause we were at music camp, and he’d been the guest and at the end we were sitting in the office folding the programs for the final concert and I said, “I think Bill’s had a good time,” and she said, “Yeah, and I think he’s gonna get married before people think he will.” And I’m like, “Well, what? What? What are you talking about? You know, and she said, “Yeah, and I know who he’s going to marry.” I said, “Well who? Do you have a list?” “No, I just know who he’s going to marry.” I said, “Well who is it?” And she says, “I can’t tell you.” And I said, “You can’t not tell me. Friends don’t do that to friends.” So she said, “Well, promise me you won’t act stupid.” “I’m not gonna act stupid.” And she said, “It’s you.” Of course, I started acting stupid. Uh my head hit the desk and I sat up and I’m like, “What are you talking about?” And she just very calmly said, “Well, think about it. Here’s who he is, here’s who you are, and this is what I see.” And she has a gift of discernment which scared me to death. So it’s - so that was the beginning of it. And for a whole year I just I prayed about it, and like, “God, just take this away if this is not what you want.”

BILL: Then a year later was The Ambush. 

LINDA: A year later was an ambush. And then a year later was the wedding. So I was just big on not pushing doors. I’ve seen too many bad marriages…

JAN: Yeah.

LINDA: …and I was totally happy being single and I didn’t need a bad marriage and, like, if it’s not from God then I don’t want it. So I was very careful about just listening. 

BILL: Of course now she has the regrets, but back then… 

JAN: Well, yeah, well, we all kinda do.

ROB: Jan said, “Bill? Really? Bill?”

LINDA: Yeah. Right, right. That’s why I said, “Do you know who you’re talking about?” 

JAN: I’m just thinking back I’m sorry, the one comment you meant you’ve seen too many bad marriages. And you’ve seen them up close. And that’s hard. 

BILL: And many are well intended and often come out…

JAN: Yes.

BILL: …of what I’d call demographic convenience.

JAN: Yeah.

BILL: Because, “Well she’s my age, and I’m her age and there’s nobody else my age here. So - and she’s a Christian, I’m a Christian, so I guess it must be us,” but that’s not always the case. 

LINDA: But see, and that’s the thing, like, I felt compelled to tell him because at the end of that year I was convinced that Susan was right that I was supposed to marry him. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, really.

JAN: It is, yeah.

LINDA: To just sit down and say that. Just, “I’m supposed to marry you.” You know, that’s not me. I wasn’t chasing after guys all my life, you know. So I told him and then he’s like, “Well, I don’t agree,” and left, and I’m like, “Okay, fine, I’ve I’ve done that, and then even when I moved to Chicago, that I never pushed the door. Never pushed the door. It’s like I left it totally alone. 

BILL: In fact she said at the time, she says, “Well I am moving to Chicago, but it’s not for you.

LINDA: Yeah.

BILL: “So I’m gonna do this job…

LINDA: “I’m moving for my job.”

BILL: “…you know, so don’t worry about that. I won’t bring this up again.”

BILL: I mean, ’cause I and when you’re in that sort of that grieving and then the numbness that comes after that and all that kind of stuff, you don’t really see all the other stuff that goes around, but my staff every now and then would chuckle when they’d see some lady come by to just say hello. And I go, “What?” “You know, she’s, she’s…” “No.” [laughter] You know. But you just don’t see it that way. I was a full time dad, you know, and I had this job, and you know it’s like kind of my kids were in junior high and high school. So, you know, but I said, “I know you believe what you’re saying,” you know, so I figured that was the best way to get out of it. I said, “but I don’t share your vision. “’Cause I’d even called her one time when this job came up in the youth department, I said, “You know, you ought to think about,” but that’s - I do that for all kinds of people, you know, say, “You ought to, you ought to check out this job. This could be you.” But there was no more into it than that. Just I thought, yeah, it’d be a good fit. And it was. She did well in that. But…

LINDA: Thank you.

BILL: Yeah. And I’d already - that’s the other thing. I’d already started dating a lady from our corps. And she was a lovely lady, and I have, you know, to this day I cannot think of a bad thing…

LINDA: Uh-uh.

BILL: …to say about her. But I can think of all kinds of bad things to say about Linda.

JAN: Well yeah, we all have a list.

LINDA: Right. Right.

BILL: But um you know - I said, “I introduced you to her at Congress,” she says, “Yeah I almost threw up on her shoes,” you know.

LINDA: True.

BILL: But not only that we’re all going on the same corps, and I’m sitting next to my new friend with my arm around her in the service and stuff. We are an item. People know we’re dating and they’re all happy for us. But then an interesting thing happened was that over the course of succeeding months it’s now approaching October, and I just felt my emotional energy in this relationship is falling away, and she’s noticing it and says, “What’s the matter?” I go, “You know, I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s just some,” and I said, “Oh, you know, this is the month that Wendy died. It’s probably affecting me that way.” And then the energy level would come up to here, but never back up to where it was in the start of things, you know, and then it would it would dip lower and it’d be like, “Oh, what’s this?” And I go, “Well, I don’t, let me think. January, well, that’s her birthday. So it could be Wendy’s birthday that I’m reliving here,” you know? And I’m thinking it’s this, you know. Then over the course of the summer, we were going back to Dearborn Heights for a wedding. I didn’t even know Linda was gonna be there, but it made sense. It was the Hurula wedding. when I was a little bit of a Becky, yeah. 

LINDA: Becky, yeah.

BILL: Yeah.

LINDA: Becky Hurula who lived with me awhile…

BILL: Yeah.

LINDA: …yeah.

BILL: So she’s there travelling separately and there’s this reception afterward that’s at some country club is just down the road from the corps. So it’s a kind of sit-down dinner but they also had a DJ and a band and stuff and so the kids were out there dancing and stuff like that. And it was just like one of those things like right out of a movie. It was like the last dance of the night. I wasn’t dancing all night or anything like that, but it was a slow dance, and for the first time I saw Linda, there was like the waves parted and she was standing right there. And I went up to her in a very romantic voice said, “Hey you owe me a dance.” You know? She goes, “Uh, okay,” you know, so we’re just kind of awkwardly, neither one of us knowing quite how to dance.

JAN: Yeah.

BILL: Sort of walking…

LINDA: True.

BILL: …around the room. And it’s like then I had sort of this flash. And it’s like, “The reason for this is you are - this decline in emotion - is you are dating the wrong person.” And so that’s when I came back Monday at THQ, I said, “I need to talk to you.” So she came down to my office, and I shut the door. I said, “First of all, let the record show that you started this.”

[Laughter] 

LINDA: The blame is properly placed. That’s right. 

BILL: Yes. But I said, “I’m beginning to wonder if there might be something to what you said a year ago, but you know, I don’t even know where you’re at. I don’t know if you look back on that as the dumbest thing you’ve ever said. Even I don’t even know what you’re doing. If you’re seeing somebody, I I don’t know, but I just want to tell you that,” and she just said, “I stand by what I said.” So I said, “Well now we gotta figure this out.” But it was the summer, music camps, all these kinds of stuff, and she’s going her way. So our first date was basically me meeting her at O’Hare Airport, ‘cause she’s flying in from Kansas for a pilgrimage she was a guest at and the plane’s an hour late. So I got these roses that are, you know, I have a reservation at a restaurant in Elmhurst and and we’re getting - it’s really weird. So when she finally got off the plane, held her hand for the first time. Went on our first date to this restaurant, and when we - by the time we got there it was like five minutes before closing. They said, “No, no. Come on in. Come on in.” And it was just the two of us. We were well waited on. So then I brought her home. So I’m sitting there uh talking to her  on the couch and I said, “So I’m now dating a person who thinks I should marry them.” And she’s going, “Yeah? Like what?” I said, “Well, the fact that I’m dating you would say to me that I think we’re on the same page. I’m a very practical guy, and I have a date in mind when we could get married.” And this is like in September, and she says, “What’s the date?” I said, “January 3rd.” And she says, “1998?” This is September, 1997. Said, “Yeah, if you got a better date, I’ll take it, but uh that works for me.” And so she goes to her Palm Pilot or wherever the thing was. ..

LINDA: Yes, it was a Palm Pilot.

JAN: Yeah, I used to have one.

ROB: Palm Pilot. Those were the days, yeah.

BILL:  Calendar, and so she’s very desperately now December into that year. She goes, “No, that will work. That’s Chri- …Oh, and that’s a Staff Band concert, and that’s in, and that’s CMI, and that’s just,” and she’s going back and, “Oh I got Youth Councils,” and you’re going on this thing and, “Okay January 3rd.” She says, “I’m typing in ‘wedding.’”

[Laughter]

LINDA: Not whose wedding, just “wedding.” 

BILL: “Okay, go ahead, type it in.” She says, “I’m gonna press enter.” “Go ahead. Press enter.” So she pressed, “Okay, it’s in there.” She says, “Okay. January 3rd.” I said, “Well, can I now kiss the bride?” So that - and, and we were married on January the 3rd. 

[Music begins]

JIM (voice-over): Bill and Linda. Two extraordinary people we’ve known since their high school days, and two people we’ve grown to respect as they have been making their way.

We thank you for your company today.

Until next time. 

[Music ends]