Scott proposed to Carrie in what was perhaps not the private, and intimately romantic way she had always imagined, but in a way that was, looking back on it, very appropriate for and indicative of what their life together would be: on a stage. In front of hundreds of people.
Scott and Carrie met the summer before their junior years of college, when they both decided to take summer jobs at ValleyFair. Scott was a team lead at one of the roller coasters, and Carrie a lifeguard in the waterpark.
Fast forward two summers to a return trip to ValleyFair, and Scott’s big plans for popping the question.
All day, Carrie had her suspicions that Scott might make such an attempt, and was really hoping he wouldn’t. Not because she didn’t want him to ask – she did! Just…. please… please not at ValleyFair! She was actually convinced that he would ask WHILE riding the roller coaster where they had met. She imagined him pulling a little square jewelry box out of his pocket at the pinnacle of the highest climb in the ride, and then losing hold of it as they plummeted down, the ring suspended comically in midair for a moment, before disappearing forever – lost among the debris of hats, sunglasses, cameras, papers, and other assorted personal items that were lost after their owners were instructed to put them away but didn’t.
But there was no suspiciously ring-box-shaped item in Scott’s pockets, and when they did ride the roller coaster and climbed to the highest point – nothing.
Turns out, Scott had been much sneakier. In fact, Scott had actually travelled to the park secretly the day before – which was 6 hours of driving, round trip – to make his preparations.
A college friend of his and fellow theater student, Ditt, was working that summer as stage manager for the Ed Alonzo magic show (recognize that name?? Only those of us 40 and older will – Ed was the magician/diner owner on Saved By The Bell 
…another name you will not recognize if you didn’t grow up in the 80s and 90s!).
Through the connection of his stage manager friend, Scott arranged for Carrie to be “randomly chosen” from the crowd and brought up on stage as a volunteer during the show. The three of them then planned the details that would follow – complete with the appropriate lighting, music, and of course, camera. Finally, leaving the ring in the trusted possession of his friend, Scott drove all the way home, ready to turn around and drive right back again the next day – the stage was set.
After their enjoyable, but otherwise uneventful rollercoaster ride, Scott and Carrie took in one of the outdoor gazebo shows – the kind where the performers dance around and pull audience members up on stage to join the fun. As one performer twirled around their table with an inviting smile, outstretched hands, and a question in her eyes, Carrie stared back with an unmistakable expression that said “not on your life, pal,” and the dancer quickly moved on to a different victim. Carrie leaned into Scott and whispered “I hate when they force people up on stage!! It’s so awkward!! No thank you!!” Scott smiled steadily back.
The gazebo show was just across the way from the Galaxy Theater, where Scott’s friend was stage managing. Scott had told Carrie about Ditt working the show and they had planned to catch the act while they were there.
They found seats along the front row of the back section – prearranged seats of course, but Carrie didn’t know.
The show started and Carrie’s suspicious thoughts about Scott’s plans for the day were set aside as the acts continued. Until they announced a very special act, for which they would need a volunteer from the crowd – the ring disappearing act.
Carrie’s eyes snapped immediately to Scott. He wouldn’t. He…. wouldn’t. No, she told herself – she was just looking for signs – this was a coincidence and she was being paranoid.
Then Mr. Ed Alonzo was among the crowd, searching for his volunteer – he needed someone with a very interesting ring, he said. As he got closer and Carrie shrank down into her seat, Scott started waving his arms, pointing at her and calling out “pick her! pick her!!” Carrie shrank down even further – a look of terror on her face.
Ed Alonzo was there in a flash – “Well now – do you happen to have a ring on you? You do? Do you mind if I take a look?” With a sigh, Carrie held out her hand – her left ring finger sported a Black Hills gold ring, which her parents had given her years ago and she’d worn ever since.
“Well now, that’s actually a very interesting ring – how long have you had that?”
“Um – about ten years?” Carrie guessed.
“Oh that’s great – that’s perfect! I think that’s just the ring we need – you better bring that on up!”
With a side glance of complete and utter death to Scott, Carrie stood. As she made her way to the stage, her hands started to sweat – not only because she couldn’t believe this was actually happening – if it WAS really happening – but also because the reason she’d worn that Black Hills gold ring from her parents for the last ten or so years was because, blessed as she was with her mother’s knuckles, the ring was almost impossible to take off!
Wrenching and twisting at the ring, Carrie reached the stage, climbed the steps – still the ring had made little progress. Alonzo chuckled nervously – the crowd was waiting. Carrie took a deep, bracing breath and with one final, savage effort, forced the ring over the hag-like bone and handed it, sweating, to the waiting magician.
It should be noted that Scott played no witness to this struggle because the moment Carrie started down the aisle toward the stage, he had bolted out of his seat, through a side door on the opposite side of the room, where he was ushered backstage.
Onstage, Ed Alonzo continued the act of the disappearing ring, in which the Black Hills gold ring miraculously vanishes, only to reappear inside an apparently unopened can of creamed corn.
Setting aside the can opener she had just used to open the can, Carrie dumped out the gloppy corn – fully expecting to see an engagement ring among the knobby mush. But to her astonished relief, it was the same old Black Hills gold ring she had painfully parted with minutes before.
Chiding herself for assuming and looking for something that wasn’t there yet again, Carrie plucked her now sticky ring from the small pile of corn and took a deep, calming breath – ready to return to her seat – safely out of the spotlight once again.
But Ed Alonzo was still talking. Commenting again on what a very lovely ring that was and apologizing for making a mess of it. “Tens years you’ve been wearing that ring, huh? Well that’s quite a long time. And I feel so bad for getting your ring all full of corn like that,” he said. “I feel like maybe we should get you an upgrade to make up for it – something you could wear for the next ten years, even longer!”
With a look of horror, Carrie’s eyes shot immediately to the audience, blinded by the bright stage lights but searching desperately anyway – WHERE was he?
“You know, I really feel like I recognize you,” Alonzo was saying. “You used to work here at the park a few years ago, didn’t you?”
“…Yes” came the reluctant reply. Carrie had never met Ed Alonzo before. There was no chance he simply recognized her.
“Yeah – yeah! In the waterpark, right?!” His face lighting up as if some memory had finally come back to him.
“Yes.”
“And you met someone when you were here, didn’t you? You met Scott. Well Scott’s backstage, and he’s going to come out now and do his own little bit of magic.”
Resignation. No doubt about it now – this was really it.
Scott enters stage right (as any decent theater wife would know) and the lights immediately dim to a soft twinkle, and music started to play. He crossed the stage, holding a microphone in one hand and the other hand behind his back – now holding the ring box he had reclaimed from Ditt backstage. He was standing so tensely poised with that microphone that Carrie wondered if he was about to burst into song. But he simply crossed the stage and kneeled in front her.
For the first, and possibly only time in his life, Scott was nervous. So nervous that his hands were shaking. “Carrie, ten years ago I met you here” – whoops – the nerves mixed up his words and thoughts – it was the ring that was ten years old, he and Carrie had only met two years ago! But years of speech team and theater training kicked in and he plowed on without hesitation, “and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
Bringing the tiny jewelry box around and holding it up to Carrie with his one available hand, the nervous trembling suddenly intensified. Fearing he was about to pitch the box right out into the audience, Carrie reached to steady his hand – looking for all the world like she couldn’t wait to get that ring!
There was no question in her mind, of course, what the answer would be. He may have put her on a stage, under a spotlight, in front of hundreds of watching eyes – he had even arranged to have the scene recorded by the theater friend Ditt, who hovered stage left with a videocamera, something Carrie had not yet noticed – but she loved him. Before she could even take a full breath the answer came whooshing out her – “YES!”
It never occurred to her to say “Yeah…. no. This whole thing…. this is not a proposal by the lake under the stars, so…. Let’s try again.”
Things don’t always play out the way a person expects or plans, and one thing Carrie knew with absolute self-honesty – Scott would always be 1000% himself. This whole scene was his way of putting everything that made him who we was into something special. And he did it with absolute authenticity, and a desire to share what he was and who he was. Life was sure to bring surprises, adventure, magic, and always authenticity. Also, a bit of corn.
