When is I was 15, one of my regular weekend activities was to go roller-skating. Think “Rollbounce” or “ATL” just without the rappers turned actors. Since my two closest friends at the time were white, “Shake and Bake” wasn’t an option, so we would ride all the way out to Pasadena, about a 40-minute drive from our homes in southwest Baltimore, to find a more “diverse” skating population. For the most part I was just happy to be out of the house but the girls were nice too. Being from the “city” brought some clout with it to a place like Pasadena. We’d roll up 5-6 dudes deep in Steve’s 1987 yellow Chevy Cavalier (ballin’!) bumping DMX or Eminem as loud as his often broken speakers would allow. You couldn’t have toldme, I wasn't tough (with my cornrows and butter Timberlands, lol). We probably went skating every weekend for about a year. You know the drill, you’ve seen the movies: you spent most of the time rapping along to lyrics of songs while skating around and trying to look smooth for the girls. There was the all-girl skate, where the guys cleared the floor and watched the girls circle around as we “Ooohed” and “Ahhhed”. But the best part of the night was the all-guy skate. This was how you tested your “playa” level. As you skated around, girls would line the wall and stick out their hands for you to slap as you skated by. The more girls who had their hands out as you skated by, the more “swag” you had. And the part of the night you dreaded most was the couples skate: you never wanted to be the guy who had to sit down and pretend to be tired during the couples skate.
Needless to say we went skating A LOT. One Saturday night turned out to be different. I noticed her immediately. She had a narrow face, a black-t-shirt that said Elite Models, a pony-tail (turns out it wasn't hers) butmost noticeably she had a BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGG…Smile (yeah, you thought I was going some place else, well I would have and she did, but my kids might read this someday, so I’m sticking with smile). I remember immediately thinking how beautiful I thought she was, but there was a problem. She was skating with another guy. So I waited. We left that night and I didn't approach her.
A few weeks later we returned and there she was. Alone. (Ole boy got the message, subliminally). Now was my time. Would she slap my hand during all-guy skate? Could I get her attention before somebody else did? What if I got her attention but she wasn't interested? So here’s the thing… I used to be kinda shy, especially around the ladies. Going up to her and asking for her number was out of the question. So how could I do it? How could I find out if she was interested without risking being embarrassed in the place where I was coolest guy there (in my own head)?And hence the Sedrick Smith “move-to-woo-the-ladies”was born! I winked! Yup, you read that right. I winked at her! Smooth, low-risk, and if she squinted her face in disgust, I could just pretend that I had something in my eye and move on with my life. So I waited for her to sit down, and when she looked in my direction…Boom! The Wink! She smiled, I smiled and that was it. A few minutes later her friend Stacy came over and asked me if I wanted to skate with her friend Asha, I said yes and we skated together the rest of the night and exchanged pager numbers (Yup, pagers, this was the late 90’s people) before her mother came into the skating rink with a house coat on and snatched her out because she was taking too long to leave (that really happened). She blew my pager up all night (she claims I blew hers up, but clearly her memory is fuzzy in this area) and when I got in the car to head back home, I told my boys Brad and Steve that that girl Asha was going to be my girl. 15 years later, 8 years of marriage later, 4 kids later (well 3 kids and an Audrey ), she’s still the girl I want to skate all of my couple skates with. Happy 28thbirthday to my darling wife. And this kids, is how I met your mother.
