KEYS, A 40 YEAR STORY OF MISS JULIE AND HER POOL BOY: Miss Julie gave me these keys for Christmas 2023. They used to work the locks of Maclellan Gymnasium on the UT-Chattanooga campus. Today, technology has rendered them useless but they still turn yesterday’s tumblers, yesterday’s like Monday, August 27, 1984. It was a little before 8:00 AM as I took a sip from a water fountain in Maclellan Gymnasium on the UTC campus on day one of the fall semester. It was a fountain, back in 1976, standing in line behind & in awe of Moc All-American hoopster Wayne Golden, where my love of soon to be national champion Mocs basketball grew a little more. He took his drink, turned & looked at me, raised his large, palm down black hand, my signal to extend my small white hand palm up, & gave me “five” & uttered “Go Mocs”. It was the highlight of many days in the place called “Big Mac” until I saw Miss Julie, Jules to her girlies, on that hot, wonderful August morning. Shortly after my water fountain stop, in Maclellan Gym’s room 207, I noticed her first as she, being the prettiest Pi Beta Phi in Tennessee, strolled into Health, Phys. Ed & Recreation class 3020. I don’t know how she missed my mullet & two days of Sonny Crockett stubble, Izod collar popped, Duck Head khaki shorts, & Bass Weejuns, a stunning fusion of Miami Vice & Preppy splashed in arrogance & Grey Flannel cologne that went unrecognized as she took the seat in front of mine. As Jersey rockers Bruce Springsteen & John Cafferty climbed the music charts that fall, I climbed Big Mac’s steps trying to step out of the friend zone. I finally got a date with her through football. On occasion, I dropped a fin on a 3 team parlay on the 1980s version of the betting app, Stevie’s sandwich truck, & one weekend I found my opening. Discovering my future father-in-law graduated from Georgia Tech, I noticed the Jackets were 38 point favorites over Duke & I bet her dinner while taking Duke, giving her the 38 points & prayed all weekend the Blue Devils wouldn’t pull the upset of the century. Now, let those keys tell you a little about us. Our first “date” was dinner at The Jolly Ox, our first kiss on my parents couch as we studied for the next day’s HPER 3020 final. We’ll be married 38 years this October. It’s a toss up on who said I love you first & who falls asleep first. I’m taller, older, more stubborn, more competitive, neater & a better cook. She’s a fabulous baker, the most sensitive, the loudest & can run the house Iike Carol Brady or like a swashbuckling pirate ship captain leads his corsairs depending on the circumstances. Her favorite perfume has the aroma of a well chlorinated pool, we adore being  grandparents, our living room often looks more like a locker room, I’m content that I’ll never know the right amount of swim goggles a coach must possess & we found those keys also unlocked: two boys that have added husband & father to their resume’, occasionally too much month at the end of the money, two hands held at children’s weddings, at parents funerals, & while exiting a flaming house. As I get older, I put more value in substance over style, that peace of mind out values any dollar sign, that pep rallies, whether they occasion an event athletic or religious or anything else are for those that aren’t playing, that on those occasions when life knocks hell out of you or the Devil tries to knock more Hell into you, if you rest on the shifting sand of emotions or feelings instead of something or someone concrete, you’re in deep trouble. Thankfully, Miss Julie is a concrete foundation & has never been the damsel in distress type & on more than one occasion, I found her swinging a sword, like an extra swim lesson or providing a new pen & notebook, like St. George at that day’s particular dragon. On some Valentine Days, we’ve celebrated with fine dining on checks drawn from the corner office, one with a frozen pizza to keep the water running, in 2013, a cold sorting through charred remains of a home & 2024’s version with prescribed meds as Miss Julie finally reversed a 12 day hold of flu turned pneumonia. What they often don’t tell you at conferences or put in books, is there’ll be plenty of days like those & you need a mate that will show up, sword drawn & shield ready, for all of ‘em. A mate that’s as tough as a $2 steak & willing to endure the test to give the testimony. This past Christmas, when Miss Julie surprised the Pool Boy with one of those style over substance things, the keys to the gymnasium where room 207 lives in Big Mac, it was a sign that God knows what He’s doing. For forty years we’ve sometimes wandered in a wilderness of my creation & now I wonder where forty years have gone. Forty years that Miss Julie may have lost faith in some of my crusades but never lost faith in me, & when Jules enters a room, I still think she’s the prettiest Pi Beta Phi in Tennessee, I’ve got the keys to testify…Love You Miss Julie