As most reading this will know, we affectionately refer to Evlynn as ‘our girl’ … most everyone does when referring to her. It’s like a badge of honor, being allowed to say “she was our girl” … proud to have had the opportunity to know her.
My relationship with Ev goes way back to 1971, when I was working at NSA while in the Navy, and I had met this great guy John who was in the Air Force at the time, and also working at NSA. We hit it off quite well, and he even helped me learn how to program in FORTRAN … which proved to be quite valuable, as I am working on 40 years now in Information Technology. If I didn’t thank you back then buddy, I certainly do now!
But back to Ev … I found out that my new buddy John was pretty smart, because he had married Evlynn! John had invited Marge (my wife) and I to a ‘hootenanny’ (don’t ask, it was a 70’s phenomenon … and that’s a whole other story in itself!) with he and his new bride. We had both gotten married around the same time it turns out, and John wanted us to meet ‘his Evlynn’. Well we had a blast at that hootenanny, and then at several other times with John and Ev…at their apartment, and at ours … young military newlyweds with a lot in common (we liked board games and card games, except John won all the time!). We also liked an adult beverage on occasion, and sometimes on several occasions! [You know how those young people are.]
I could write tons about “our girl” Evy, about how caring she always was, how super generous she was, and just someone that you wanted to be around … she made you feel good.
But for this memory moment, for this time of thinking about Ev … I have decided to comment on something that John mentioned on his blog … about Ev and her basketball prowess, and how she humiliated several of his ‘macho’ buddies.
One weekend we all decided to head out to Williamsburg, VA, and we stayed at a beautiful golf resort called Kingsmill on the James (nothing but the best for us!). I think we went to Busch Gardens and then maybe to dinner one night … when we got back to the ‘condo’ it was still light out so we decided to take a walk around the resort property. Well we stumbled upon a huge building and were curious about what was inside … we peeked in and it was a full gymnasium! Complete with basketballs laying around, and open nets waiting to be ‘swished’. We started fooling around, shooting some shots and passing the balls around … and Ev says, “Hey Frenchy (my nickname), want to shoot a game of HORSE?”
My first reaction was to laugh … and I think I did, something like “Are you kidding? Play HORSE against me?” And Ev said, “Sure, why not?”
I wasn’t any superstar by the longest shot, but I played some intramural basketball in high school, and I had a pretty good shot. I think I asked if she wanted ‘a spot’, you know…like I have to play until I get HORSE, but she only had to get to HOR to win…something like that. I think I insulted her … because she said “NO, just shoot”, and passed me the ball. Well the rest is a short story, I think she beat me “H” to “HORSE” … in other words she spanked me bad. I recall asking for a rematch, since that had to be a fluke. But then I think she shut me out the second game … HORSE to zero!
So now my new buddy’s wife, who was also fast becoming our best buddy too … had a whole new level of respect from me! Not only was she a great person, by gosh, she could play some hoops too!
I recall her husband John watching all this with a smug look on his face … he knew how it was going to turn out. Of course it wasn’t until later that I found out how good she was on her high school team, and then also played some semi-pro ball as well!
On some of our later visits to their house in NJ, we used to watch Ev coach “her girls” … at St. A’s where her teams were always sharp in their play, whether they were highly skilled or not. You could see how good a coach she was too … I think one year they only lost one game. So … you can see, “our girl” was something else … multi-talented and a good sport too, I don’t think she rubbed it in too much after my embarrassing defeat.
And it wouldn’t have been so embarrassing if I hadn’t tried to give her a spot at the beginning … that probably just made her mad. :-) We love you and miss you girl … just one of the many stories I could tell about Ev, as Marge and I were blessed all these years by knowing her.
Thanks for the memories Ev.
Reinke Faces Life 