The Turnstile - written by - Janea Mark

Once there was a girl who is my mom, well she wasn't my mom then . Whoa wait let me tell this story from the beginning. So one day my mom at the age of 17 was coming home from school and boy was she in a sour mood.
That day my mom whose name is Rita went down to the underground subway system of New York.
The day was June 29Th of 1990 , that day in school Rita had received awful news from her college counselor, supposedly she didn't qualify for the college that she wanted to attend so there was no point in Rita's even trying to apply.
Rita was crushed. She wanted to attend Harvard and from there go on to law school. So as Rita entered the subway and just as she went to go through the turnstile it jammed. Just as this was happening to the already grumpy Rita a boy shouted ," Hey Rita!, how's it going?" A boy from school was trying to be nice, and Rita retaliated with "how do you think it's going?, does it look like I am having a good day? sarcasm, why do you ask such stupid questions?"
The boy whose name was James Cooden immediately backed off and said in a slightly softer voice, "hey I am sorry your day was so bad if you want to talk about it go ahead and give me a call."
James then pointed out which turnstiles were working and left Rita alone and went on his own way home. As Rita rode the subway in silence alone she got to thinking that maybe she was a little harsh on James, after all how was he to know she had a bad day?
So a little begrudgingly Rita decided that when she got home she would call James and apologize.
When she got home that is exactly what she did, Rita called James explained her dilemma and why she was in a sour mood and apologized for taking it all out on James. James was very gracious and accepted her apology and told her to go for her dreams and try to apply anyways. Rita stayed up late that night, thought it over, and came to the conclusion that she was going to send for an application. She got up early and sent for an application and got to work on her essays.
A period of time passed and Rita became close friends with James, so when the letter came in the mail from Harvard Rita opened it with James reading over her shoulder. It was a letter of acceptance.
James and Rita then became inseparable each rooting each other on and helping the other reach for their dreams, Rita became an attorney at law just like she had always wished and James became a school teacher teaching 12 grade English.
So, when James asked for my Mom's hand in marriage, after all they had been through together Rita couldn't say no, so she said yes and they got married and well they had me.
For their anniversary each year they don't go out to dinner at a fancy reservations only, type of restaurant.
They always eat at the hot dog stand in front of the turnstile that brought them together.