AUBURN – It was the second week of December and there was a snowstorm raging outside – David Gott, 49, made his last stop of the night, hoping Club Texas would be open.
He was in the mood for some line dancing, but The Silver Spur in Mechanic Falls was closed. So was Harmony Hall in Yarmouth.
He lucked out on the third try, in more ways than he immediately knew. Club Texas was open, and it wasn’t long before he was on the dance floor. That’s where he caught the eye of Carol Gagnon.
Gagnon, who as it turns out is just a day older than Gott, grew up in a family with a love for country music and dancing. She’d been a Club Texas regular since the country bar opened several months ago.
“I love to two-step. I love to dance,” she said Thursday, recalling with Gott the night they met. “So when I walked in there that night I noticed him, and he was a two-stepper.”
Gott was dressed in his dancing clothes – the cowboy boots and good blue jeans, a western shirt and hat. She watched him for a while, then determined she’d ask him to dance.
He beat her to the punch.
When they stepped onto the dance floor, she knew right away.
“The conversation was easy and comfortable,” she said. “We fit so well together in one another’s arms when we were dancing.”
He liked the way she was dressed in a fitted shirt and cowgirl hat, and instantly felt like he’d known her for years.
“Whether it’s good or bad, I know I can tell her anything,” he said.
Then he divulged the rest of the story.
“You want me to tell you what caught her? My homemade chocolate ice cream.”
He told her about his culinary talents up front to make a good impression.
Laughing, she admitted the ice cream is delicious and added that she’s been promised some carrot cake, too. They’ve been known to stay up all hours baking together, and also enjoy taking scenic rides along country roads on his Harley.
On April 14, not even five months after their first meeting, David Gott took Carol Gagnon to Day’s Jewelers in Auburn to be fitted for an engagement ring. While there, they found out the jewelry store was marrying people as part of a spring bridal promotion.
“By the time we got a justice of the peace and a hall and the cake and everything like that, it would take us quite a while, so we figured, Why not?'” she said.
They returned April 22 with friends and family for the brief ceremony under an indoor arbor, which was decorated with balloons and flowers. They were treated to sparkling cider and wine, hors d’oeuvres, cake and wedding gifts. They wore their best dancing clothes for the ceremony, wide brimmed hats, boots and all.
In the end, Carol Gagnon became Carol Gott, and she beamed. She’d only been married once before at 18, and divorced within a year.
“I waited 30 years,” she said.
It appears it was worth the wait.
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