The Easter Card
	It was the mid-sixties and I had just left my job at Sears as an advertising artist, which is where I had met two of my best friends for life, Patsi and Sharon. I started my new job at the Tampa Tribune on the staff as a news artist. As a young man of twenty-two, I was really excited. The newspaper was pleased with my work and Betty Vance, the society editor, after seeing several of my pieces asked if she could have me as their full time artist in the Society Section. I felt very honored. She was an older, very sophisticated lady and sort of took me under her wing. My first job for the society page was a full color, full page illustration for Easter. It hadn't been very long since I had left Sears so I went to a card shop and bought about six or eight cards to send to my closest friends. The cards were all the same and had an actual photograph on the front of a white bunny sitting up on its haunches and several brightly colored Easter eggs next to him in the grass. The greeting was something like, "Thinking of you at Easter". After mailing them to Patsi and Sharon and several friends, I had one card left over so I thought I'll send this to Betty Vance because she's been so nice to me. A couple of days later, Patsi called and said she had gotten her card and thanked me. And then she went on to say that a friend of ours, Glenda Thurow, who worked in the Sears Display Department and who I would go to lunch with frequently, had gotten her's also. She had called Patsi and was very upset and concerned. The greeting inside her card read, "My darling, I find reasons for loving you more and more every day". She said, "Patsi, I had no idea he had these feelings for me." I had thought all the greetings inside the cards were the same but they weren't. They were all different. I, of course, called Glenda and explained the mistake and then I realized...Oh My GOD! BETTY VANCE!!! Oh no! I thought, "Oh please don't let her's say that!" The next day was Easter and I had to work. I worked the night shift, 2:00pm till 11:00. I came in and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I'll never forget, I was wearing bell bottoms and I was afraid I was going to trip on the bottoms. It was the way all the hippy/artist types dressed back then. I ran straight to the society office hoping that the envelope would be there unopened, but there it was on her desk. No one was in the office because it was Easter. The card was out of the envelope and I read it. It said all that "My Darling, I love you" stuff. Yikes! Was I going to be fired? I called her house to explain and a man answered who I assumed was her husband but turned out to be her son. I frantically told him the whole story without even using commas. I finally realized he was laughing so hard he could hardly speak. The next day when I saw Ms. Vance she was so gracious. She said, "Oh shoot, I thought I had a young admirer." That was the same Easter that Sharon and I dressed up like bunnies and went around to some hospitals and several months after that, that my boss at the Tribune, Ted Starr told me that they were very pleased with my work and come September or October I'd be getting a nice raise. I quickly replied "Could it be in October? That's my favorite month!" He just quietly looked at me and slowly nodded and said..."Sure. We can wait till October." Oh, and I sent one of the cards to a good friend of mine who was the 6' 6" bouncer at a bar where I used to go. His card said "Happy Easter to my wonderful GRANDMOTHER!" Lash Out Loud