When “Time After Time” Came Late…by Robert M. Katzman
Almost exactly forty-six years ago,
I met this amazing woman named
Joyce Esther Bishop.
I proposed to her at Midnight December 31, 1977
Telling her I loved her and
Would she marry me?
Joyce said Yes
*
There was no particular date chosen for that to happen
The important thing was to ask the question
Because our futures
And the futures of our children’s children,
Depended on her answer
Everything else was plans
*
“Time after time I tell myself that I’m
So lucky to be loving you”
*
We decided to be married in Chicago
In a spur of the moment decision
In the middle of Winter
February 19, 1978, a Sunday
A Sunday because
Jewish people marry on Sundays
Because the Sabbath, Saturday, is holy
*
Even though we married in a Unitarian Church
Where we met at a dance
I didn’t want to go to
Even though Joyce was still Lutheran
Even though our Minister
Used to be Jewish
But was now Unitarian
Even though we both didn’t
Really know much about being Unitarian
Except the massive Gothic Hyde Park building
Was so beautiful
So…why not?
*
“So lucky to be
The one you run to see
In the evening when the day is through”
*
We were both twenty-seven
She worked at Commonwealth Edison
I worked at my wooden newsstand
There wasn’t much money
We were living in her
One-room basement apartment
There wouldn’t be very many people
But the wedding cake, we agreed,
Would be chocolate
Nothing mattered but being in love
*
“I only know what I know
The passing years will show
You’ve kept my love so young, so new”
*
Time went by, as it does
We mused together that someday
When we were more prosperous
We’d marry again in a bigger way
Invite all the people we wished
We could have invited the first time
Have a good band and dancing
*
And I thought, to myself, when we do
I’ll ask her to dance with me
While my favorite romantic song was playing:
Time After Time
Sung by Frank Sinatra, of course
Who turned words on a page into Magic
He was 32 when he recorded it
So, for a little while
We were all about the same age
*
“And time after time
You’ll hear me say that I’m
So lucky to be loving you”
*
And Time went by, as it does
And people make plans
And God laughs at that
We dreamed that on our Tenth Anniversary
In 1988
We’d marry again
Dancing to that song
Because we were becoming more prosperous
*
But then we became less prosperous
And by our 10th Anniversary
When we were both thirty-seven
My business was closed
I was unemployed
We were unemployed
And that dream would have to wait
For better times
*
“I only know what I know
The passing years will show
You’ve kept my love so young, so new”
*
And Time went by, as it does
We’d lie in bed at midnight
Looking at cracks in our ceiling
Dreaming of what was to be
Knowing that one day
Someday
Success would return to us
*
That maybe by our 20th Anniversary
We’d both be forty-seven
In 1998
We’d have that marriage
Dance that dance
And be happy
*
But the older people
We planned to invite
Began to die
*
And time after time
You’ll hear me say that I’m
So lucky to be loving you
*
And Time went by, as it does
When our 30th Anniversary
Came about
February 2008
We were both fifty-seven
And our illnesses had increased
And my surgeries more serious
Our parents had died
All the older and less older relatives
And even some of our
Once young friends
Had died
*
We knew no wedding for us
Would be happening
Because our daughter was marrying
This wonderful man
Which was more important to us
Than our declining ability to dance
Than I hear Time After Time play
*
Then the unexpected happened
Later that year
December 2008
Moments one couldn’t plan for
Rachel was marrying Gary
I wasn’t part of the planning
So many people were there
Some of them we knew
But not too many
*
This time there was a Rabbi
Who was actually Jewish
He wasn’t formerly Unitarian
There were so many people
It was such a happy time
*
And then the music began to play
And a thought occurred to me
Such an old thought
That maybe things happened
The way they were meant to happen
*
I hesitated for a moment
Because Time goes by, as it does
Then I accepted Life’s
Mysterious ways
Walked over to the man playing the music
Asked him if he had
“Time After Time”
In his machine filled with songs
He said he did
And I told him when to play it
*
Then it was time for
The Father/Daughter dance
And I danced with Rachel
Not so fast
Not so well
But the song we were dancing to
During this moment
At a wedding
Was Time After Time
Sung by Frank Sinatra
*
And as we danced
I saw Joyce’s face
She smiled watching us
Her husband, her daughter
I was happy to be part of a plan
I never made
*
Maybe it wasn’t exactly
How we thought it might be
Thirty years before
For us
But I was thinking to myself
As I listened to Sinatra’s beautiful voice
That if Man plans
And God laughs
I bet He was smiling now
*
Joyce somewhere in the Universe
Rest in Peace
***
“Time after time, I tell myself that I’m
So lucky to be loving you
So lucky to be the one you run to see
In the evening, when the day is through
I only know what I know, the passing years will show
You’ve kept my love so young, so new
And time after time, you’ll hear me say that I’m
So lucky to be loving you
I only know what I know, the passing years will show
You’ve kept my love so young, so new
And time after time, you’ll hear me say that I’m
So lucky to be loving you”
***
Songwriters: Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn
******************************
Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262) 752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
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