IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

’00s: Online personals bring Lake Highlands couple together, internet sleuthing leads to one-of-a-kind engagement gift

In2005 Marshall Hayes, who owns Lucky Ducky Lube Center and Car Wash in Lake Highlands, met the love of his life, Joy, on the online dating service Yahoo! Personals. Neither was optimistic about finding The One online, but both were busy, intelligent, technologically savvy professionals who figured exploration of this increasingly popular digital dating world could not hurt.

“I admit I was one of those people who kind of snickered at those who met on the Internet until one of my good friends, Elizabeth, met her now-husband online,” Joy says. After serving as Elizabeth’s maid of honor, Joy relented.

Marshall’s photo was cute and, according to his profile, he cooked, which was appealing, Joy says. But she was skeptical about his vaguely stated area of profession — “the entertainment industry.”

(Turns out that was the catchall phrase for automotive-care-center owner, food truck vendor and television producer, among other ventures.)

Marshall, too, had his doubts. A media-obsessed entrepreneur, Marshall was all for Internet matchmaking. His problem was a lack of faith in true love.

“I figured I was going to just continue to date women, but not find one person that I would want to spend every day with,” he says. “I treasured my alone time. Even when I had girlfriends in the past, I would save a day just for me. That all changed when I met Joy.”

Marshall and Joy’s first date turned into a six-hour conversation during which they discovered a mutual love for the writings of Malcolm Gladwell and the live music of Reverend Horton Heat.

After a year of dating, Marshall tracked down author Malcolm Gladwell and asked him if he would consider signing a copy of his book “The Tipping Point,” which Marshall planned to use as a prop in his proposal to Joy. (He would place the ring inside and have Gladwell write, “Glad I could help” on the front cover and “Congratulations” on the back.)

Gladwell eventually agreed and signed the book, but Marshall could not wait for its arrival. Instead he proposed on Oct. 10, 2006, the one-year anniversary of their first date. The autographed book arrived the following Monday.

They married in September 2007. The car-care center is still in business (on Royal at Audelia), and they are parents to two little boys.

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‘Cutting-edge’ recording equipment leads to love for a couple of music aficionados ’90s:

In1997, before Facebook or smartphones, Lake Highlands residents Sam and Audrey Sequenzia met the old-fashioned way, in person. But Sam explains how their 18-year relationship started with a common interest in making music and the era’s most cutting-edge recording equipment.

musicians used the groundbreaking Portastudio to record and blend multiple audio tracks, Sam explains, “so the existence of a currentday MacBook would have precluded any chance of meeting Audrey at my apartment at TimberCreek (which today is the site of a Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart).”

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“Newly armed with a Tascam Portastudio (model 414, I think) a glorified cassette-tape deck, yes, cassette, our mutual friends and I had decided to use my apartment as a makeshift studio … to record the best blues album, uh, ever.”

Before Apple computers and GarageBand,

Audrey’s friends warned her that Sam was “kind of weird” and that he had just endured a breakup, she later revealed. But as she entered the apartment/studio, her eyes locked with Sam’s; the chemistry was instant.

Sam was wearing studio headphones, a bushy shock of hair jutting out from them. Au- drey was a brunette, Birkenstock-clad beauty.

She stayed all night, listening to Sam and the band record, falling asleep on the couch and eating pizza the next day with Sam at his apartment/studio.

Precisely four years later the two married atop Winfrey Point. One of Sam’s bandmates from the Tascam session led a five-piece jazz ensemble that played Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” at the reception.

A few years later they brought baby Judson into the world. Sam did not exactly become a world-famous blues artist, but he is still making music.

“I have no idea what became of that Tascam, or that cassette for that matter,” Sam says. “Wherever they are now, I owe them, big time. Best blues album, ever.”