A Dream Cruise Love Story
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Christiana Ciolac

Erik Smith talks with Denny and Patty in front of their '71 Chevy SS. Video

To borrow a phrase, there are a million stories in the Woodward Dream Cruise and this is just one of them, a love story that begins with an awkward dance in the 8th grade, endured half a lifetime of separation, and, finally, culminated in a storybook reunion over 40 years later.

Patty and Denny dancing in junior high school.

This is the story of a little girl named Patty O'Conner and a red-haired boy named Denny Flinn, who grew up together in a Royal Oak neighborhood, fell in love when they danced the night away in junior high.

"I was too shy to ask her, and by the time I did ask her, she already had a date, so I went to the dance without a date and danced every dance with her and her date got mad and left so I got to take her home."

Patty and Denny dated all through high school but in 1961 Denny joined the Navy. They thought about getting married, decided to wait, but then, as always, time and distance took their toll on the two young lives.

"I got out in October of 1962, the day of the Cuban missile crisis, and I came back and I stayed in California about six months. I came back and asked somebody about Patty and they said, 'Oh, she's engaged.' I thought, 'Oh, darn it.' We both got on with our lives.

Patty eventually married someone else and so did Denny, who moved west to Colorado. Time passed. Two lives were lived without contact. Then both their marriages ultimately floundered.

Denny came back to the metro area for the first annual Dream Cruise in 1996.

While he was out west, Denny found his dream car in Colorado Springs, a '71 Chevy SS. So he carefully restored it and then in 1996, he drove it back to Royal Oak to visit with his parents. That was, of course, the year of the first annual Woodward Dream Cruise.

Little did Denny know, along Woodward Avenue that day, that fate was about to get his motor really running.

"A guy saw the Colorado tags and he said you came all the way from Colorado for this cruise? I said, 'Well, I grew up here and went to school here and everything. I don't know what made me say it. While I'm here, I always check on an old girlfriend," Flinn said.

"He says, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Denny Flinn.' He goes, 'Harry Sprat.' We went to school together. His wife perks up and she says, 'I'm Mary Beth O'Connell, and I was one of your sister's best friends. Who was this gal you're talking about? I said, 'Well, I don't know who her married name is but her maiden name was Patty O'Conner. She goes, 'She got a divorce two years ago and lives out in Whitmore Lake.'"

It didn't take long, in fact, it was just a few heart beats later that Patty and Denny had a date for dinner. The childhood sweethearts would meet again in the glow of a warm August sunset at the lake.

"When we were eating dinner, I said, 'Patty, I've got something to show you, and I pulled out my wallet. I had laminated her high school picture, and I carried it in my wallet all those years.'"

Had you guys talked about marriage at that point?

"Oh, yeah," Patty said.

"I just think I knew that night at the lake. The sun was setting behind her and I had the harpoon right through me and I got back here and I said to her that asked her in 1961 to marry me. Have you made up your mind yet?"

After the wedding vows were finally exchanged, you know they drove off in the red Chevy and, yes, the '71 SS will be in the Woodward Cruise this year, next year, and the year after, because this is, after all, a fairy tale.

The tale of the Snow White of St. Mary's School and her prince charming, who arrived one day in that shiny Chevrolet. You just have to believe they'll live happily ever after.

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