Posted February 23, 2007                (Reprinted by permission of Paducah Sun)

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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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Turned off by the tube, love begins over laundry

Valentine's Day contest winning entry

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Bill and Annette Tanner of Metropolis, Ill., will enjoy a dinner courtesy of The Paducah Sun. Annette Tanner's story on how she met her husband was judged the best received in the Sun's online Valentine's Day contest. To view other entries, go to the Sun's Web site www.paducahsun.com and click on the Love Gallery banner.

On Tuesday night, June 19, 1979, I was bored and nothing was on TV besides "Three's Company." I didn't care for "Three's Company", so I decided to do my laundry. My studio apartment in the Madison Apartments (I lived in Lower Town before it was Lower Town) didn't have a washer/dryer hookup, so I went to Owen Cleaners at 1745 Kentucky Ave. I lugged all my laundry in from the car and stuffed it in several washers. While I was doing this, I noticed a cute guy sitting in the corner watching me.

We made eye contact several times throughout the wash cycle. He put his clothes in a dryer. I put my clothes in a dryer close to his. We eventually started talking -- we had so much in common!
 

For one thing, he also decided to do laundry because he didn't like "Three's Company." We discovered we had been at the same places at the same times before and had never met. We had even lived in another town in central Kentucky within a few miles of each other.

The whole time we were getting to know each other, we were folding our clothes at the big table at Owen's. I was so embarrassed that my underwear was in the basket and hid them right away. We were on one side of the table and there were several other people on the other side folding their clothes. We were entertaining those people as we were talking. They were watching us like a tennis match -- they would look at me, then him, then me.

I finally folded all my laundry and it was getting very late. He hadn't asked me out and at that point, I didn't think he was going to. I started to pick up my basket to go and when he nervously said "Listen ...", I knew I had him.

We went out the following Friday and have been together ever since. We celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary last November. We have "Three's Company" and Owen Cleaners to thank for that.