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When a Ride in a Weinermobile ISN’T the High Point of Your Day

Getting Serious

Roger and I had met only a month prior, but it felt like the Real Thing and we’d started talking casually about getting serious.

One night at my home, a show comes on TV about the World’s Best Wedding Proposals. Roger looks at me and says, “I bet you expect me to come up with something really great.”

I say, “Of course I do.”

A Plan

A month or so later, we are Mile High Stadium several hours before the game. Working with my sister’s organization on the Red Ribbon Campaign, we are collecting money to prevent teen substance abuse. It’s several hours before kick-off and no one is passing by to put quarters in my can, so I take a break to do some sleuthing.

I ask an official-looking security guard, “What do I need to do to get a message up on the scoreboard?”

“Come with me,” he beckons, and takes me into the bowels of the old Mile High Stadium. We end up in some sort of control room.

A woman with headphones on tells me I need 2 weeks notice to get something up. I explain to her my plan, and she says, “In that case, just write down what you want and make a check out to the city for $50.”

I do.

Inside the Weinermobile Inside the Stadium

Before the game, we get to ride around the field in on the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. The baloney company is also a Red Ribbon sponsor, and my sister is something of a mucky-muck in the campaign. Inside are my sisters, their husbands, and my guy and me.

Can you guess what songs we sing as we ride around the stadium? We wish we were a certain brand of wieners that everyone is in love with, and that our names were spelled a certain way.

“Who, Me?”

During halftime my sisters have strict instructions to keep Roger in his seat. My announcement will be up for only 30 seconds.

That’s not a problem, since he is fixated on the Punt, Pass and Kick competition among a couple dozen 8 year olds on the field. In fact, when we DO try to get him to look at the scoreboard, he is slightly annoyed at missing little Jimmy’s punt.

But he does look up in time, to see this on the DiamondVision:

“Roger Luz: Score with me forever. Will you marry me? Lori”

He looks at me. He looks at it. He looks at me. He looks at it.

He tells me later that this is what he was thinking:

“Oh, wow! Someone else here has the same name I do!”

“And, wait! He ALSO has a girlfriend named Lori. Out of 70,000 people, what are the odds?” [OK 1 in 69,999].

“Ummmm. I think that’s me. Is that me? Do you mean ME?”

We lock eyes and he says “yes.” My sisters and their husbands have, by now, let all the people around us know what’s happening. There is a loud cheer in our section.

We leave sometime during the 3rd quarter and float home. Seriously, I don’t remember walking to the car or driving it to my home. Just an elated, ethereal sensation. I now understand the term, “walking on air.”

The Broncos beat the Browns. This is in the Wade Phillips days, and that is an accomplishment.

Word Gets Out

I am friends with the Bill Husted, gossip columnist for the Rocky Mountain News (now with the Denver Post. I call him the next day to tell him what happened.

He is less impressed with the fact that I proposed than he is amused by Roger’s reaction.

He puts the story in his column later that week, poking fun at Roger. Just a little.

Our 15 Minutes of Fame

The Associated Press picks up the story. A friend of mine in Chicago calls to see if that was ME mentioned at the tail end of her local news. My grandma hears “the rest of the story” on Paul Harvey. And we get a dozen calls from morning-drive DJs around the country wanting to tease Roger on air for not quite getting that he was being proposed to.

We accept a half-dozen shows (for posterity; we have cassette tapes of them). Roger becomes increasingly irritated at the inanity of the DJs. He bests them each time with his superior wit and intelligence. So there.

Fast Forward

Happy anniversary of our engagement today, Roger. Score with me forever?

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27 Responses

  1. Wow! My engagement consisted of my husband jokingly putting a paper napkin ring on my finger at The Thirsty Dog (yes, there was a dogfood bowel of potato chips in front of us) and asking me to marry him in front of two friends. Basically, NOT a proposal at all.I now have yet another proposal to nag him over. I should have just taken matters into my own hands.

  2. Aww! Stories like this make me want to smack the back-side of my husband’s head and yell, “See!! Now that’s what I’m talking about!”But seriously…his proposal to me was memorable. Nothing like being handed a box still wrapped in shipping paper in the doorway of your bathroom after curiously barging in because you heard what you thought was mice in the wall – when it was really your boyfriend digging said box out of the weird crawl space behind the bathroom mirror where he had hidden it months before.

  3. You know how to live! I love it. You’re fun. I’m not fun. I plan everything than I worry, fret. Your way seems so much better.

  4. That is so amazing!!! Go big or go home – so romantic! I’ll tell my proposal story closer to our anniversary which – egads – is 9 days away.

  5. I expect nothing less than totally cool from the likes of you, Miss and once again I am not disappointed! On top of an amazing day, you got to ride in the wienermobile AND the Broncos won under the helm of Wade?! An incredible day, indeed!Thank you for sharing!!!

  6. I think the weiner mobile got too much cheese in your head. lol. “score with me forever”. Awesome.Happy engagement anniversary!!! 🙂

  7. Holy, you have such insane stories, I just can’t believe it. You proposed, you did it in a totally funny way, AND you have radio tapes of it!

  8. Awesome. Way to take charge! I am not a fan of women waiting around passively for proposals that may or may not come. I am the agent of my own destiny… at least when it came to marriage. Other stuff, apparently not so much.

  9. I remember that day including riding in the Wienermobile, reading the message on the scoreboard (hoping Rob would see it) and seeing yours and Rob’s reaction. What a great story to tell! Happy engagement-anniversary to both of you!

  10. “So, um, you wanna get married?” “Well, yeah, we could do that.”Your story is MUCH better. I love his reaction. “Who, me?”Such a man.

  11. what an amazing story! seriously. one of the best I’ve heard. and you have the tapes to prove it. I got chills reading it. and I laughed hard at his reaction. then I kept chuckling thinking about you two doing radio shows. just awesome.

  12. Awwwwww . . . what a sweet story! Did I read that right – after a month? Wow, you know what you like right away, huh?Congratulations Rob and Lori!

  13. love it love it love it! GREAT story Lori! Thanks for sharing with us! And congrats on 14 years!!!!

  14. I love it! What a memorable engagement! Thanks for sharing the story! I love great engagement stories, and I’m glad I have one too!

  15. awww, too cute!! Congrats guys!!

    As they would say in Arabic “3i2bal 100 sinneh!!!” (roughly meaning “Many Happy Returns”… specifically, 100 years worth :))

  16. Wow! That is some engagement story! I thought mine was good (Y2K New Year’s Eve in Amsterdam) but it’s nothing compared to yours…good for you for taking the “bull by the horns”!

    Visiting from Blog Gems!

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