Many years ago before Microsoft got too big (circa mid 90’s) there was an unofficial “Decorate your office for Halloween contest.” There was no prize. It was just for bragging rights about how spooky you could make your office on Halloween.

Throughout the day, word would get around as to what offices in what buildings to check out.

Most people would bring in black lights or posters or have scary music playing. There were always the requisite cobwebs everywhere. Also included were body parts and pumpkins.

In 1992, I was determined to win. During that time I was doing a lot of the yard work around my house. Raking leaves cutting back branches and trimming back blackberry brambles.

After staying up late the night before Halloween (and drinking a few beers), I had this brilliant idea. I would turn my office into a cemetery and use the leaves and blackberry brambles as decoration to make it look like it was outside. I had a projector that would display of a full Moon on wall and audio editing software to create audio ambiance. Crickets chirping, wolves howling, an owl hooting ended noise of a babbling brook. I could make headstones out of Styrofoam and mix up a batch of fake blood and bring in the body parts.

So here it is, 4:00 AM Halloween morning and packing my Mustang with all the gear I’m going the use to win this nonexistent prize. The gear I packed also included four large lawn and leaf bags full of leaves and blackberry vines complete with thorns.

Hours before anybody showed up for work I was already there working hard. I started by hanging a 9 foot by 12 foot sheet of black plastic in the back of the office to make it darker. Next was to dump out the leaves and spread them on the carpet. I brought in so many leaves; they were 3 inches thick on the floor. I then untangled the blackberry vines and spread them about the office. I set up the rest of my props, turned on the Moon projector, and turned on the soundtrack. Finito!

Needless to say, word got around campus that people should check out the office in building 16. There must have been about 50 people that stopped by that afternoon to take a peek. The company newspaper even stopped by and snapped a few pictures.

Nobody said it, nobody had to. I had the best decorated office on Halloween in 1992 at Microsoft.

At the end of the work day, I was too tired to clean it up. I figured there were more people that would want to see it before I tore everything down anyway.

The very next morning when I came into my office, my door was closed and there was a note on it.

The note was from the cleaning staff. The note stated that there was no way they were going to clean my office, or if they did my business unit was going to get a huge cleaning bill.

That evening I left a note on the door for the cleaning staff that explained I had no expectation that they would clean my office.

Sidebar: I didn’t clean my office for another week and I was a mini manager at the time so there was a lot of traffic in and out of my office. The lease the cleaning staff didn’t have a problem vacuuming the leaves of the hallway every night.

Here is a picture of what my office looked like in standing in the doorway. It was a mess; a very proud mess, indeed.

Play the video while reading the comments below.

costaldefence381
4 days ago
@lovescompass
You made two people also very happy. We parted at the same time and now my little Flower Grader is back. The same thing as happened to you repeats itself in our case,a little different but not much. It is good to be able to love someone after such a length of time, although I never stopped loving.

MrRstanton34
1 week ago
Lost two of my very best friends and then my Dad in less than a year. My darkest days, and just before my father’s passing and out of the blue a beautiful women walked into my life. So beautiful it made me even sadder, thinking that life had passed me by. I’m married to her now, we have been together from that first day over 8 years ago. This song so represents my love for her! Such a terrific song, thank you Seekers!

ZeskoWhirligan
1 week ago
Is this a pandemic? I loved and lost in college, some 30 years ago — I worshipped her, continued to love her through 3 decades of many unhappy relationships, trials and tribulations that finally landed me in a happy marriage here in the present. Then, after 30 long years, I discovered my lost love here on the Internet, finding that she too has been married, had kids, is falling out of love with her inattentive spouse.  My heart is ACHING for her! This song is our anthem!

mydogblue1
4 weeks ago
I first heard this song when I was 10, the year was 1965. I wish so much I kept the words in my head. I had that someone, and broke up with her in 1976. And I really never found that someone again.

jimcoope
1 month ago
I play this song often and never get tired of it . I went steady will a girl when I was 15 in 1966 and never forgot her. In 2000 I found her and married her in 2002. It has been 8 years and still getting better. So I say it is never too late to find the love of your life.

brownindian17
1 month ago
Lost my love too in March of this year, she moved out and we were so in love for 5 years. her name is Shelly and i pray each day she will come back to me. This song makes it so very sad and its so true!

mydogblue1
1 month ago
@2bwhiteproud I broke up with my true love in 1976, and have regreated it ever since. I have been married twice, and will never marry again. I have not seen her in over 30yrs, but I to am still in love with her. So your not alone. I do have three great sons and I’m greatful for that.

lovescompass
1 month ago
This song link was just sent to me by a guy I broke up with in 1973. We both went on with our lives – each married, each had children. Thirty-five years later, our long-term marriages over, he found me through a google search. For over a year we’ve been together. He sends me song like this all the time now. Never have I felt so loved and so cherished. Go find your old girlfriend.

2bwhiteproud
2 months ago
I played this song and cried my eyes out my Girlfriend broke up with me She got married to another guy less than a year later. That was in Christmas of 1964 I STILL Love Tina to this day I think about her all of the time even though I’m Married to someone else,I saw Her in 1985 She was single,the Marraige to the first guy didn’t last He was Married to several after Her. Not long afterwards I got Divorced I wish I had looked her up I know She loved me also

GLG47
4 months ago
This was our song, Ruth and I, when we were going together and talking marriage. It’s 40 years in a couple of weeks and there have been great times and trials, deaths and successful children. The words mean as much now as then and are just as true.

mydogblue1
5 months ago
I was 10 yrs old in late 1964, living on a naval base in Trinidad WI. I was sitting on a beach when I first heard this song. Brings back memories. Judith is the best.

acan464
6 months ago
I lost my dog in April 2010 after eleven years. This song reminds me of her. She was the best camping dog. She was always their for me. When I would come home from work after a bad day she would listen to my problems. She love to camp. She saw all of the southwestern United States. Rest in peace my beloved Pretzel.

MrRonnieG
8 months ago
I gave this 45 RPM record to the love of my life (Kathy) in the summer of 1968. That has now been nearly 42 years of Judith’s voice, and these words, still take me back as though it were yesterday. This will, forever, be one of my favorite recordings. How fortunate we all are to have such a warm and loving recording to forever carry us back to such a special place in time. God Bless Judith and The Boys!

MrRonnieG
9 months ago
First head this in 1968 while dating the love of my life, Kathy. Gave her the 45 RPM single……..drafted in February 1969 and, 4 months later, was in Vietnam. Got a letter from Kathy in August saying she simply could not wait. Everytime I hear this song is just breaks my heart BUT it also makes me realize how fortunate I am to have, once, been that happy.

I lived by myself which fed into making a bad situation worse. I had very little accountability. Years of brooding alone, driving by my old house on a daily basis, and financial difficulties only made a bad drinking habit into stark madness. During the past decade, my drinking increased to the point where I wracked up three DUIs and I isolated almost completely. I was hospitalized three times early this year (2010) for medical issues that were a direct result of my drinking. I was deeply depressed which required medication and I landed in the psych ward twice. I was so paranoid I couldn’t pay my bills even though I had the cash. I couldn’t get out of bed, and was bouncing off psychosis. I stopped doing the things that once made me happy due to the fact they inevitably left me deeply saddened and disturbed. I was very close to death more than once.

In March of this year I was informed by my uncle and one of my Father’s closest friends that he was very, very sick. During a lengthy phone conversation, I convinced my father that I should move in with him for a while to help out. It had been years since I visited him. Too many bad memories.

When I arrived at his home I was surprised to see what shape it was in. All the rooms except for his bedroom were a complete mess. The house looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. There were piles of dog shit everywhere.

It was truly a heartbreaking and gruesome sight to see my Father. He was not the same guy. He was a confused skeleton – but he was my Dad and I loved him dearly.  (Please see Dear Ole’ Dad is Dead.)

We spent two weeks of the best quality time we could have had under the circumstances.

On March 30th, we woke up around 6:30am and smoked and joked and watched TV until about 10am. He looked at me and said “Boy, I’m not feeling so hot Dave.” He rolled over on his tummy, used his left arm as a pillow and died.

His wishes were not to be resuscitated so I sat there and waited. I’m still struggling with that to this day.

In the movies when somebody dies with heir eyes open, someone invariably gently brushes their eyes closed. This however does not happen in real life. They don’t stay shut. They actually pop back open. You have to tuck the upper eyelid under the lower one to get the desired effect. Trust me on this.

He went how he wanted to go – in his home with six dogs laying around him in his water-bed.

I quit my job and moved into my Dad’s house full time to get it ready to sell.

Within about a week of his death I had this feeling that something was terribly wrong with me. I didn’t feel sick, but I didn’t feel right. I had never felt like this before, it was very scary – I can’t really describe it. I called 911 and the ambulance came to pick me up.

My BAC was 0.457 yet I was carrying on a conscious conversation which had the medical staff baffled. My platelet count was < 4% of the norm. Spontaneous bleeding and death were looming. My body was shutting down but my mind was not. I had to do something. I didn’t want my kids to go on without their father and I wasn’t done contributing to this physical life.

After bed rest in the hospital for ten days, I was released with explicit orders not to do anything strenuous or anything that would cause an injury. I was told to not even pick my nose.

A multiple diagnosis treatment center is what I needed.

The first month was hard because of the strict regimented lock down. I wasn’t used to being told what to do and when. I have been on my own since I was 16. I have pretty much done what I wanted to do since then. The first phase was a challenge for a couple weeks until I just accepted the fact that I needed someone else to drive for a while. I did what I was told, worked on my homework, and journaled. I made it a point to do my reading and assignments at the dining room table so everybody in the house could see me working. I wanted to be an example for other clients. I think in the end it was good for me because I made it a task to work on it every day, and maybe I did get some people kicked into gear to learn the tools required to stay sober and to move toward health.

Over the past four months here I have utilized counselling, therapy, massage, and acupuncture services to get to the bottom of some of my physical and mental issues. I have learned and employed the tools offered which include recognizing red flags, triggers, denial patterns, self sabotage, recurring behaviors and possible obstacles. I have taken this second chance at a new life very seriously. I am not afraid of anything and I’m excited for the future. There is nothing I cannot do.

Most of all, I have tried to be as open as I could and have seriously considered all feedback to change for the better. I find myself being more open and honest as each day passes. My spirituality has been renewed through prayer and meditation. My emotional navigation and empathy are kicking in. God is revealing to me more and more each day. All I have to do is breathe deep, slow down, look for it, and listen. The key is listening.