First Monday - First Date

It's the first Monday of the month and this month's topic is first love and/or first date in honor of Valentine's Day.  Even if you're not in a relationship now, everyone's had a first love or a first date - tell us about it!!!  Sign up to participate in the comments and I'll add your post link at the bottom of mine.


My parents made me wait until I was 16 to have my first official date.  At the time, I thought they were pretty strict, but as it turns out, they knew what they were doing.  I had friends already that I hung out with, so I wasn't lacking in a social life, but there was no one-on-one dating until I was 16.  I had a curfew of 11pm.

There was a guy at school who'd asked me out a few times, and I always put him off because I wasn't 16 yet.  So he bided his time and shortly after I turned 16, he asked me out.  I admit I wasn't too enthusiastic about it.  He was a super-smart guy, a member of the smart people clubs (chess, Latin, a Merit Scholar) and I think part of me wasn't thrilled because I thought that maybe I wouldn't be smart enough to be good company - in spite of being a pretty smart cookie myself.  I had no idea what we would talk about.

He picked me up (don't remember what kind of car), and we went to the movies to see the original Muppet Movie.  That relieved us of having to actually talk to each other but for small talk before the lights went down.  I was doing okay so far!  He was a perfect gentleman and never tried to cop a feel in the dark either, which had been worrying me.  Afterwards, we went to Barnaby's for pizza, which was loud and full of other high school kids out on dates.  I'm not sure if the place was picked for the food or to demonstrate to some other kids that he could, in fact, get a date in spite of being a bit of a nerd.

The movie and dinner pretty much used up our date time, so he took me home around 10:30.  To my horror and relief, the Brothers were all up and waiting.  My date and I came inside and we all went out onto the back deck for iced tea and chat.  The deck was way up in the air with trees surrounding us, and it was warm but not hot - kind of ideal weather for hanging out in the dark.  I don't remember what we all talked about, but there was lots of laughter. 

Somewhere around 11:30, the bagpipes started up.  My date jumped and asked what the heck was that?  We all laughed - it had happened before, but not often.  It just so happened that Dr. D down the street had tied one on that night and when Dr. D was in his cups, he liked to play the bagpipes outside.   We listened for a little bit, until Dr. D finally wound down and Mom and Dad said it was time to come in.  They shooed the boys to bed so my date and I could say goodnight.  There was a single, chaste kiss before he left - but enough for both of us to know that there was no chemistry there.  Just a nice friendship.

Years later, after I'd left my first husband and come home, my mother called me at my apartment and in a sing-songy voice told me to guess who was in town.  There was only one guy I'd ever dated that made her talk like that, so of course I immediately guessed.  She urged me to call him (he was in town visiting HIS mother), so after a little internal debate, I did. 

We met at a bar after the lunch crowd had gone back to work and spent the whole afternoon talking and catching up.  I'd been married and was in the midst of a divorce.  He'd never been married but was living with someone and thinking seriously about popping the question.  He had a prestigeous job in DC - I was working as a temp at the cable company and had just started seeing someone.  We were both at a strange and awkward place in our lives, trying to make good decisions about who we were going to be.  It was nice to just sit and talk to someone about all of that.  As things wound down (and the happy hour crowd was starting to filter in), he leaned in close and said, "My mom was so excited that we were meeting today...  what should we tell our mothers?"  (He knew my mom was over the moon too.)  I suggested that we tell them we'd spent the afternoon in a motel which made us both laugh.  In the end, we didn't say much of anything to our parents.  Mom couldn't stand it after a while and asked - and I told her...  a nice afternoon talking with a friend.

I never saw or heard from him again.  I tried Googling him before writing this, but came up with nothing.  I don't know what that means anymore.  Dead?  Low profile?  Or just somewhere back in the pages and pages of Google search returns that I don't have time to look through?  I hope that wherever he is, he's healthy and happy with how his life turned out.  And I'd like to thank him for being such a good first date.  Our second date over a decade later was pretty nice too.

Want to play along?  Let me know in the comments and I'll add you to the list!
Jill
Faye