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I first became aware of Denz' existence right before junior year started in the fall of 1984. I went to see Dr. W in his office for the Theatre Department. He told me that one of the Theatre students who graduated in 1976 was coming back as a graduate student and was looking to get involved in Theatre again. He was gearing up to direct our production of "Charley's Aunt" and had put a copy of the play at the library. I had to go there to read it. I couldn't check it out. When I opened the copy, I saw a note from Denz to Dr. W saying how much she like the play and that she was looking forward to the auditions.
When the evening of the audition was upon us, there was a woman that I hadn't seen before. She had blonde hair and deep, dark brown eyes. She wore glasses and was noticeably older than the rest of us. I figured out it was Denz. After the first part of the audition, Chud and I started talking to her. I really don't remember what all we discussed during that first conversation, but I think we found out she was married and had two kids. She got cast in the play.
Because I designed the lighting for the produciton, I spent a lot of time at the rehearsals. I got to know her better. When I needed a program for my Audio Production class and decided to focus on Theatre Department productions, she was one of the cast members I interviewed. Kird, who was also in the production, got somewhat mad at me for choosing her to interview instead of him. He said, "The only reason you interviewed her is because you like her and you get turned on anytime she even talks to you!" The second part of his statement was fiction, but there was some truth in the first part. Even though I interviewed her from the angle that she was a prior student back on the boards at ENMU, I was actually attracted to her, but I never admitted that to Kird. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to use her interview in my show because I could only pack so much into a three minute production.
During the rehearsals, she once came up to me and said, "Do you know what really gets me mad? The fact that I have to pay someone money to try to get my hair to do what yours does apparently for free!" After the production was over, we would occasionally see each other and talk from time to time, but we didn't really start becoming friends until the next summer. We were in "Carnival" together and we were among a group of four who had lunch almost every day in the campus coffee shop.
During the summer, one of the cast members held a party at her apartment on a Saturday night. Denz wanted to go and asked me to be her designated driver to and from the party. (I seem to recall that her husband had taken the kids out of town for the weekend.) We had done a lot of joking around with flirtatious-type behavior during the lunches, but I didn't know if she might ever feel like taking the flirting to another level. I really didn't know what to expect that night.
She and her family lived in the West Campus housing for students who were married and/or had children. This was where my family lived during the summers when my parents were working on their Master's degrees. I came by and picked her up and we drove to the party.
Things didn't get out of hand at the party. She had a couple of beers, but didn't get totally wasted. I remember we were both very quiet on the drive home. I drove up to her apartment and dropped her off. There wasn't even as much as a good night kiss. I had gotten all anxious over nothing, but I'm glad nothing happened.
I came over to visit her one day during the three week period between the end of the summer session and the beginning of the fall semester of my senior year. She was at home with the kids and her husband was at work. I got to come inside. This was the first time I had been inside a West Campus apartment since before I started first grade. I was surprised at how cramped the apartment looked. When I was five years old, I thought the place was very large and spacious. I have no idea how my parents were able to concentrate on their studies with me and Loyd running round and wreaking havoc all of the time.
Denz was getting lunch ready for the kids while they were watching the Disney Channel. (This was back in the days when it was still a subscription service and didn't have any commercials.) We were watching "The Sword in the Stone." We're watching the section in which Arthur and Merlin are squirrels. After they turned back into humans, Denz' son (who was about seven at the time) asked why the girl squirrel was so sad. This was the first time I ever had to say to a kid, "You'll understand better when you're a little older."
During Thanksgiving Day that year, my family had arrived in Portales early in the morning to spend at Grandma Ogolon's. Loyd had a friend with him. We went driving around town for a little bit. I thought Denz might like to meet my brother, so we went over to her apartment. Her husband answered the door. He wasn't wearing a shirt and I could hear the kids yelling in the background. I asked if Denz was there, but he said she was busy with something at the time, so we left. That was the first and only time I met her husband. I'm certain he was wondering why these three young guys showed up at his front door asking to see his wife.
During Christmas break, I ran into Denz at the mall movie theatre in Roswell. I had just seen the film version of "A Chorus Line." (Very disappointing, considering I had seen the original on Broadway.) We talked for a little bit. I think her husband may have been there with her, but I didn't really pay attention to who she was with.
After graduating from college, I would drop in from time to time to see her in ENMU's Business building where she was assisting a professor while she was working on her Master's. I would also call her and talk from time to time, but I lost contact with her after I moved to Denver. I wasn't even aware that she had moved back to Roswell.
She became a school librarian in Roswell after getting her Master's and recently retired. Her husband passed away more than a year ago. We are now friends on Facebook. I'll occasionally comment on some of her posts, but it's not the same friendship that it was before.
But it's still nice that we continue to have some sort of connection.
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