… So it is just amazing how the internet works to connect us with lost memories and tie up loose ends. Today, one of the saddest days of my life, I think of an old movie line (Marie to Jess: “I want you to know that I will never want that wagon wheel coffee table”), then remember that I first saw that movie 20 years ago with the very woman I quoted it to today, then remembered that we saw it on a study break date at the Shady Oak, then found out through this search that the Shady Oak — like my marriage — now exists only in memory. I guess it proves what the wise man said: “It all rolls into one and nothing comes for free there’s nothing you can hold for very long.”
I used to love the Shady Oak in the days when I was a grad student at Wash U from 1988-91. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I saw saw a lot of great movies there during study breaks. I have not thought about it in years. Today, during a divorce mediation session with that same woman, I pulled out a line from a movie we have often quoted to each other over the years — When Harry Met Salley — to lighten the sadness of the end of a twenty year relationship with the woman I love… .
… So it is just amazing how the internet works to connect us with lost memories and tie up loose ends. Today, one of the saddest days of my life, I think of an old movie line (Marie to Jess: “I want you to know that I will never want that wagon wheel coffee table”), then remember that I first saw that movie 20 years ago with the very woman I quoted it to today, then remembered that we saw it on a study break date at the Shady Oak, then found out through this search that the Shady Oak — like my marriage — now exists only in memory. I guess it proves what the wise man said: “It all rolls into one and nothing comes for free there’s nothing you can hold for very long.”
I used to love the Shady Oak in the days when I was a grad student at Wash U from 1988-91. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I saw saw a lot of great movies there during study breaks. I have not thought about it in years. Today, during a divorce mediation session with that same woman, I pulled out a line from a movie we have often quoted to each other over the years — When Harry Met Salley — to lighten the sadness of the end of a twenty year relationship with the woman I love… .