Tennis, John Denver, and DQ

[Greg Wilcek]

Steph and I went to school together K-12 and were friends then, but we really didn't become good friends until late in high school and our friendship continued to grow into our adulthood. I remember one summer day in high school that we decided to play tennis. We were going to meet Karla and Mike Filippi and play a little doubles and the loser buys DQ. Steph picked me up in her mom's red convertible – sweet car. I was always a closet John Denver fan and when we got in the car Steph was playing JD. “Thank God I am a Country Boy” as a matter of fact was blaring from the speakers. I always thought she was “too cool” for something like that, but what made her cool was she was confident in herself and if you didn’t like it…so be it. She was true to herself. Ok back to tennis - so that day Mike and I beat Steph and Karla and even if we didn’t I am going to remember it that way. The games were close because Steph took it easy on us, but Karla made up for that needed sympathy by cheating and calling balls in or out to her advantage – Karla you know what I am talking about. I remember Steph rolling her eyes at Karla because everyone knows Steph was ultra competitive, but she also played by the rules. After we were all done talking smack it was time to pay up and because we won they had to buy us a DQ. But in the time it took us to get from the tennis courts to the DQ (about 10 blocks) somehow they sweet talked us into buying the ice cream. I guess it was the gentleman thing to do. That was one of the many times we finished the day off by celebrating with some ice scream.

Another summer adventure was when Steph, Jenny, and I decided to go golfing. At the time, Jenny was considered the “pro” of us three. If any of you knew Jenny’s golf game that is not saying much about Steph and me. But what the heck, it was something fun to do and whoever lost had to buy the other two a DQ. See the trend here???? So we head golfing and I think the first hole Jenny had an 8, Steph a 10 and I stopped counting. We made it through about 5 holes of giggling, lost about 10 balls (there would have been more, but we couldn’t hit them very far), and finally decided that if might be safer for others on the course if we stop playing, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have some ice cream. We all lost and bought ourselves a DQ.

Throughout the years there were many hard fought games of Sorry. Nothing – I mean nothing could be compared to the stress and intensity of playing Sorry. We might have been failing Calculus, or just got dumped, or whatever the situation was at the time, it wasn’t even on the same planet of importance as compared to the Sorry matches. If you lost, well the humility was unbearable. I can’t remember how many countless games we played and we always enjoyed competing and “sorrying” the opponent’s game piece into the next room. Come to think of it, this might be one of the events that we did that didn’t involve ice cream.

One time in I remember (kinda) Steph, Karla, and Nyla visiting me at UND for my 21st birthday. I was told we had a blast. I wish I had more of a story, but some of the cells lost that night held those memories.

Throughout college and after, as we got busy with work and all, we still found ways to stay in touch. Whether it would be getting together when we both lived on the east coast, meeting in LF for Christmas, or emailing each other to stay connected – it was great to had Stephanie as a friend. Steph always had the wonderful smile and laugh and was always up for a good time no matter the situation.

Thanks for the good times and friendship!
Greg

[Christina (Smieja) Pennell]

Greg, I remember many of those Sorry matches myself, and even getting pegged in the head with one of those game pieces once...it left a mark! Thanks for bringing back that memory. :)
Christina

[Ann Marshik]

Greg,
Great stories! I forgot about Sorry. I remember a few of those games myself and I believe it was Stephanie who taught me how to really sorry someone (as in throwing the game piece as far away as possible!)!

[Julie (Spillum) Whitworth]

Greg - I am planning on writing some great memories of Steph as well and one of them was going to be about the wonderful games of Sorry! I think that was one of the most fun and exciting ways to play the game and what a blast we all had! Those poor Sorry pieces, they flew many miles within the Marshik household!