CINDERELLA MET CINDERFELLA,
PROLOGUE What happened for the first 49 years and first 40 years in the respective lives of Cinderfella and Cinderella can fill two books. Right now, I’d like to tell how Cinderfella and Cinderella met, and their astounding journey that had its beginnings on Friday night, February 7, 1986. It was a bitterly cold. The wind driven snow swirled everywhere, forming rolling hills of white the stretched into black beyond the glare of the headlights. Traffic along the New York State Thruway had been reduced to a single lane of crawling traffic. Any speed above thirty miles per hour was sure to lead to disaster. Cinderfella had time to reflect on what had happened five weeks earlier. Now, just because you hear that it was a summer camp, don’t assume that it was insane to rent it for a cold, wintry weekend gathering. The cabins and main building had adequate heating. What happened at the start of that winter weekend in Saugerties, New York, serves as the starting point in this truelove story. Sit back, kick off your shoes, shut out the Twenty-First Century brave-rude world, and discover how Cinderfella and Cinderella met, and lived happily ever after.
CHAPTER ONE – February 7, 1986 The snow fell heavily that night. The northbound traffic on the New York State Thruway was reduced to one lane. The driving snow and top speed of 30 miles per hour made it difficult to maneuver the station wagon. Cinderfella’s two daughters, nine and twelve at the time, were asleep on the back seat. The seventy or so miles trip from New York City to Saugerties seemed like it would never end. Cinderfella was sad, very sad. He could not have imagined a worse time in his life. Five weeks earlier, his wife had pulled the rug out from under him. After sixteen years of deep devotion to her, working hard to provide her with a secure life and two wonderful children, she turns around and tells him that she hasn’t been happy for sixteen years. Talk about a smack in the puss. She could have left him a note on the refrigerator. In any event, Cinderfella was hoping to find some happiness in this new life into which he had been thrust. As the gods would have it, Cinderfella was about to meet Cinderella and both would be reborn. Cinderfella and his girls arrived at the main building of the camp at about eight-thirty that evening. Many of the participants in the weekend were already there. There were several small groups gathered in various parts of the building making music together. Others were in small groups engaged in conversation. At this point, I should explain the sixteen years earlier, Cinderfella and his wife at that time were very much into folk music and folk music activities. He and his wife used to appear in Coffee Houses and Folk Festivals around the Northeast. They sang and accompanied themselves on guitar, banjo, and dulcimer. As the years went by, Cinderfella and his wife drifted away from the folk music scene: mostly due to his wife’s lack of interest. I tell you this, as many of the people at the weekend were people Cinderfella knew from his earlier years in Folk Music. For a good part of the evening, Cinderfella tried to forget his sorrow and immersed himself in the festivities. Fortunately, his two little girls met two little boys their own age. This took the pressure off Cinderfella. His girls and the two boys were off playing. Between Cinderfella and the parents of the two boys, there was always someone to see that the kids didn’t get into trouble or place themselves in danger of being hurt. Somewhere around eleven that night, Cinderfella shuttled the girls off to bed. He tucked them in, read them a short story, kissed them, pulled the covers under their chins, and turned out the light. With that, he went back to the festivities. Around midnight, it happened. A dark cloud descended on Cinderfella. He entered a state of deep depression and sorrow. All of the wonderful singing and dancing did not seem to help. All he could think of was the fact that, at age 49, he would have to start his life over. All he could think about was that he would have to go down to the bottom of the economic ladder, what with facing alimony, years of child support, and four years of college, times two. Earlier that evening, he observed a young, attractive, dark-haired girl in jeans and a dark blue turtle-neck sweater, as what can best be described, as bopping around the room to the music. Almost immediately, he dismissed thoughts of her. She appeared too young for him. His wife, at the time, was thirteen years younger than he. At this point, he had decided that all younger women were nuts. Any future, deep and abiding relationship would not be based on his gonads. He wanted a woman who would love him and be devoted to him as much as he loved and was devoted to her. I’ll get back to the gonad thing in a later chapter. Right now, back to Cinderfella’s deep depression. Around midnight, he was ready to pack up and take his girls back to New York. The thought of driving through the snowstorm didn’t make him any happier. A little voice inside him told him to stay, to push through the depression, and get the hell out there and start playing music. That little voice changed his life. Cinderfella picked up his banjo, found a small group singing and playing in one corner of the lounge, and joined in. He began to feel better. By around four in the morning February 8th, many of the people had gone to sleep. Five or six diehards and Cinderfella found themselves in a small circle of seats that they had arranged in the lobby of the main building. Cinderfella was playing the banjo leading the others in a number of songs. Around four-twenty, the dark-haired girl, he had noticed and then dismissed earlier, came into the room. She did not join the group. Instead, she chose to sit on a couch along the wall. As it turned out, Cinderfella was directly across from where he could see her. As the rest of the group was basically seated facing Cinderfella, they could not see her. Cinderfella was drawn to her face, but fought the urge to look at her. She was too young. He picked up a guitar, and began playing a song and singing with the group. Half way through the song, he looked at the dark-haired girl. It was Noah’s Ark. Her eyes were red and water was pouring from them. Cinderfella couldn’t take his eyes from her face. All he could think of was that the words to the song, that the group and he were singing, were putting a knife into the girl’s heart and twisting it. Now, what should he do? If he stopped singing, people might turn around and the weeping girl would be terribly embarrassed. If the group and he continued singing that particular song, he would be twisting the knife even deeper. What to do, what to do? He took the song to its natural end. By this time, he was feeling compassion and concern for her. He wanted to take away whatever it was that was making her so sad. He picked up his guitar again and started to sing a humorous song. That seemed to help a bit. As he and the others sang, he began to think, “go to bed, it’s late, go to bed.” His thought was directed to those sitting around him. To the dark-haired girl, he was thinking, “you, you on the couch, you stay there. I want to talk to you.” Almost magically, as if by command, the others got up and went to bed. The girl on the couch actually stayed. When they were alone, Cinderfella got up and moved to the couch. He asked the girl if she minded his sitting down. Needless to say, she didn’t. There was something wonderfully eerie about the situation. From about 4:30am until 5:00am, time seemed to stop. Cinderfella introduced himself. The girl told him that her name was Cinderella. They talked and talked, for what seemed forever. Finally, Cinderfella took Cinderella’s two hands in his and said, “I’d really like to get to know you very slowly and very well. What do you think about that?” Cinderella seemed a bit taken aback but responded that she liked the idea. They agreed to meet the next morning, only three to four hours later, to share breakfast. Cinderfella then gave Cinderella a gentle kiss, bid her good night, more rightfully good morning, but let’s not quibble, and went to catch a couple of hours of sleep.
CHAPTER TWO – February 8, 1986 Cinderfella’s head had been on the pillow for fewer than two hours when he suddenly sat bolt upright in bed. He glanced at his watch, a little after 7am. He glanced over at the other bed. His two daughters were sound asleep. Something in his brain struck him like a ton of bricks. The evening before, as people arrived for the weekend, they were greeted with a button-making machine in the lobby. Each person was expected to make a personalized button, to be worn so that participants in the weekend could identify one another. It was the button-making machine that was Cinderfella’s target that morning. What awoke him with a start was the fact four of the seven letters in his first name were identical and in the same positions as were the letters in Cinderella’s first name. He immediately made two buttons; each combined their names. On her button, Cinderfella was uppermost, and on his, Cinderella was uppermost.
His work done, Cinderfella returned to his room, woke his children, and the three set off for breakfast. When it came to food, Cinderfella always liked to be early. In this case, breakfast was being offered from 8am to 10am. Only a few weeks earlier, when his wife had announced that their marriage was over Cinderfella promised him self two things. First, he would never get caught up with a younger woman again, and two, any new relationship that he formed would not be driven by his gonads. Simply put, he wasn’t jumping into bed until he knew that something was there beside sexual attraction. Around 8:45am, he and the girls were finished breakfast. By 9:00am, the three were out playing in the snow. He gave little thought to Cinderella, and the aborted date for breakfast. The mother of the boys that Cinderfella’s daughters had met the evening before appeared. She confessed that folk music was not her “thing” and that she would be happy to keep an eye on Cinderfella’s girls and that he could join the others in music making in the main building. Cinderfella thanked her and took off like a bat out of hell. He had come to have fun, and fun he was going to have. Cinderfella went to his room, grabbed his banjo and went to the main building. There was music and dancing going on all over the place. He entered one of the lounge rooms, where about twelve people were playing and singing. There on a couch beneath a large window, sat Cinderella, dressed in black jeans and a dark blue turtleneck. They both had a good laugh and joined in the festivities. With the exception of Cinderfella’s daughters checking in now and then, Cinderfella and Cinderella were inseparable. They sang and talked throughout the day, through dinner, and on into the late night. After Cinderfella put his daughters two bed somewhere near 11:00pm, Cinderfella and Cinderella went to his car and sat and talked into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Each spoke openly and honestly about the feelings and experiences they held. It was then that they learned that they shared the cusp of their birthdays, August 4 and August 5. Cinderfella also learned that Cinderella was not looking forward to a freezing trip back to New York in a car without a heater. It was then that Cinderfella offered a ride back with him. With anticipation of a ride would not need defrosting at the end, she happily agreed. The next morning, Cinderella, Cinderfella and his two girls had breakfast together. After lunch, everyone began to depart for home. On the trip back, Cinderfella put his older daughter in the back seat with Cinderella, and his younger daughter up front with him. He wanted things to be proper in front of the girls. He also didn’t want his soon-to-be-ex-wife to have anything to use in the anticipated bitter court case that was sure to come. Nostadomas could not have given a more accurate prognostication. Bitter court case was a mild term for what actually happened six months later. Cinderfella lived in a very nice Co-op building in the North-West Bronx. Cinderella lived in a shabby room in a one-room occupancy hotel on the upper West side of Manhattan. He dropped Cinderella at her hotel, got her phone number before leaving, and took his girls home. Monday morning, Cinderfella called Cinderella at 10am. He asked her if she would like to go camping for two weeks, with him, in August at Disney World, six months later, to celebrate their joint birthdays together. Now, understand that Cinderella and Cinderfella had only really met some 40 hours earlier, and barely knew one another at this point. Despite the absurdity of making plans for six months into a future clouded with doubt, she agreed. Five months later, Cinderfella and Cinderfella had an apartment together in the North East Bronx. Four days before they were scheduled to go camping in Disney World, Cinderfella got his wife to sign a divorce agreement. Cinderella and Cinderfella arrived at Disney World Campground on August 3, stayed through August 17, and never have been apart for the next 23 years - looking forward to the next 50 years. That was it. There was not turning back. Cinderfella and Cinderella were meant to be together. For more than two decades since that fateful weekend, the two have been inseparable: together twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days… well you get the idea. If you talk to them, they will tell you, in no uncertain terms, that they don’t have enough time together. The two started their life together with Cinderella having twenty dollars in the bank, three more years of graduate school and student loans of $67,000 with a 17% interest rate. Cinderfella on the other hand, brought to their relationship, child support for many years for two young children, four years of college for each of those same two children, and lawyer’s fees up the gazuke. During their first year together, Cinderfella and Cinderella thought that we might run away to Canada, pump gas and wash dishes, and say screw it to all of their debts. Fortunately, they didn't. Instead, they have written seventeen books in eighteen years, appeared on countless television and radio shows, become friendly with a number of celebrities, worked for NASA’s Space Life Sciences Training Program and The Kennedy Space Center, been adjunct faculty at Mount Sinai’s School of Medicine in New York City, travel to every Disney Park around the world every year and live of life of total economic and personal freedom. Cinderella and Cinderfella have traveled to the Galapagos Islands, been on many scuba expeditions, white water rafted in New Zealand and Australia, traveled above the Arctic Circle and much, much more. What brought them from that cold winter weekend in Saugerties, New York, to where they are today? That’s simple. They turned their stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. Don’t you just love happy endings? |
