By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 6, 2000
Marriage was the last thing on either Michael or Susan Antman’s mind when tey wandered into a pawn shop in 1987. They were just looking for a diversion fom an extremely hot office.
“We were just friends, but we were in a pretty silly mood because it was 103 degrees that day, and the air conditioner in our office was broken,” says Michael, 45. “So we had a couple of margaritas at a local bar, got really looped and wandered into a nearby pawn shop.
“Truth be told, we were having such a fun time that I wanted to prolong it. So I suggested that we go into this pawn shop we saw and look for things.”
As a joke, Michael told the proprietor that they were getting married.
“This elderly old man brought out a tray of rings, and showed us an estate ring he thought would be perfect for us,” he remembers. “But he was so old, and moved so slowly, that we started to feel guilty. So we told him that we’d think about it and left.”
Of course truth is often hidden in jest, and Michael says that looking back, it was obvious he had a little crush on Susan, now 38. But they were both involved in relationships with other people. So they remained pals at the film production company where they both worked at the time.
Over the year, the couple bonded. They began dating in 1988. Within three months, they were engaged. And they knew the exact spot to get the perfect engagement ring.
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“The old man at the pawn shop was still there, slower than ever,” Michael says. “He went into the back room and eventually emerged with a tray of rings. He pulled out the one we had first looked at. There was a tiny tag on it with our initials from when we had looked at it a year before. He had remembered us. I bought it and we eloped shortly thereafter. Susan still wears that antique pawn shop ring.”
Asked whether it was that 103 degree day that sealed their relationship, Michael says that he credits a trip to Japan that he took before he had ever met Susan.
“On my last day of vacation in Kyoto, I visited a temple,” he says. “At the top of one hill were large boulders, one at each end. Local legend had it that if you closed your eyes and managed to walk from one rock to the other without tumbling down the hill, you would meet your true love the next day.”
The next day, he was back in America starting a new job … where Susan worked.
Married since 1989, Michael and Susan live in Wilmette with their 3-1/2-year-old daughter, Hannah.
