They played in
fundraising tournaments for just about any local cause. They played two rounds
every Monday (their day off) and sometimes try to fit in a round before opening
the shop during the week. That was fine and dandy until they decided to close
the shop early one day to go play a round before it got dark. They neglected to
let us wives know.
I get it…the shop was
slow, it was getting dark and golfing season was almost over. They figured they
would attempt to get in as many holes as they could before there was no more
daylight. I’d probably do the same if I loved the game as much as they did, I
just would’ve called my husband to let him know I’m leaving work to go play.
For whatever reason, I needed
to call him. Instead of calling the shop line, I called his cellphone. It just
rang and rang. That normally tells me that he is with a client. No big deal. I
left a message and waited for him to call me back. He usually calls me back within
a half hour. When he didn’t, I called again. No answer. After about an hour and
a half of not hearing from him, I called the shop. No answer. Panic set in.
Back then, when I would
panic, I would PANIC! I didn’t
think, ‘oh yah, maybe they went golfing since it’s such a nice day out and the
season is just about done.’ You would think that would have popped into my head at some
point. Nope. I started picturing the place being robbed; the two of them beaten
or dead because they wouldn’t hand over the money. I immediately called Doc’s
wife. Now both of us are in a tizzy.
She tries calling Doc. No
answer. We both start calling hospitals. No one there with those names. I
called friends, clients, family…I couldn’t find him. She couldn’t find Doc. We
both agreed to stop making calls for an hour and if still no word, start
calling everyone again. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.
Not more than twenty
minutes later, I hear the garage door go up. Here he comes, waltzin’ in as if he
just won a million dollars. The second he saw my face, that all changed. I
think he knew he was in trouble. Then the questions began to fly. Where were you? Didn’t you know I was
worried sick? Why didn’t you check your phone? If you’re not going to check it,
why have a cellular phone? Did you know I thought you were dead? How am I
supposed to raise these babies without a dad? See, I told you I PANIC.
He explained to me that
they were golfing, the cellphone reception was bad and apologized for worrying
me. I forgave him and his golfing life with Doc resumed. They continued to shut
down the shop once in a while to play golf, but every time they did, he called
to let me know.
Over time, cellphone reception began to improve and I was able to reach him on the golf course whenever I needed to. Thank goodness because there have been more than a few times I had to call him at a course way east of here to tell him there were severe storms coming. One time I was too late. The storm had gotten to them first. He and Doc had just hopped in their cart, heading to the clubhouse when I called. I could hear the storm getting angrier. They had to pull into a tunnel because it was getting so bad.
In the background, I
could hear someone yelling, “In coming!” It sounded like a war zone…the banging
from the sudden hail, thunder booms and all the yelling. And here’s Augie, on
the phone laughing. Doc had decided that this was as good a time as any to play
army men. Doc was throwing the chunks of hail out of the tunnel like they were
live grenades. Boys will be boys.
“Well, you two kids play safe and I will see you when you get home.” I said.
A while later, when he got home, he told me that they had been stuck in the tunnel for so long that staff had to come out to look for them. At the clubhouse, everyone on the course had been accounted for except those two. So, they send out two guys in a truck to find them. At least they had fun, right?
