First Dates . . .Do you remember your's?

Big Ed's thread - things today's kids missed - is bringing back a lot of memories. I've been reminiscing about childhood friends and experiences. Especially, some of my girlfriends. Do you remember your first official date?

Our parents drove my girlfriend and I to San Francisco for an afternoon at the then new "old" Filmore. My girlfriend had won two tickets to see some new band called Jefferson Airplane. Two innocent kids from the suburbs, we jumped out of the car, got in line, and waited. You could tell who had won tickets and who was a Filmore regular. Ticket winners were mostly young teens, shirts and shoes, and no mattress in tow. Shelly, my girlfriend was very nice, but I mostly remember the light show, the music, and the pre-summer-of-love love taking place on those mattresses. Bill Graham stood at the foot of the stairs - ticket taker and apple checker. Seems apples were a favorite means of smuggling acid into dance halls that summer.

In the sixth grade the walk in movies to see a Bond flick with April. It was an airbase and they were kind of lax on the ID thing. We actually used to sit in a tree and sneak little kisses.

Gee. The Airplane at the Filmore. Wow.

Not my FIRST date, but my first with my wife was 18 years ago today. We will be having dinnner tonight at the same restaurant where we went the first time.

Today's also the 14th anniversary of outr wedding. It's smart to keep the dates the same.

Daniel

Yes... Ann lived around the corner. She was my first love, first kiss, first date. We promised to marry someday when we .. got older. I have pictures of us together on a swing on our front porch at the house where I grew up. A few others too. She was a real cutie!

Our first actual date was the movies. It was 1958 and I was 11. It was early evening and we walked downtown to see The Vikings. Not the greatest movie to see at the time but hey, that didn't matter, I was on a DATE! What a feeling! I think we bought a box of Tutti Fruity and some popcorn. We held hands till our little hands got sweaty. We walked back home right after it was over. It was dark by then and I'd say it was about a mile but there were street lights. Think small town, everyone knew each other, we were perfectly safe. In those days things were different. I long to go back to those simpler times.

I moved away a few years later but not far and we somehow lost touch with each other. I wonder what ever happened to her.... :sigh: <sad>

gadget_lover said:

...Today's also the 14th anniversary of outr wedding. It's smart to keep the dates the same.

Daniel

Click to expand...

Happy Anniversary Daniel!!


Many of what I considered first dates weren't considered first dates by the other person:thinking:. Can you say "friend zone".:sigh:

My first date with my wife was awesome because we clicked and a part of me knew this girl was the one.

I don't remember my first date!

My wife and I were childhood sweethearts - We had known each other for years when we started 'dating' - and I will tell you that the first offical date probably had 10-15 friends along

I can recall my very first date, ever!

Not a horrible experience.... but I wouldn't mind forgetting it. My mind has an annoying tendency to recall, in vivid detail, events from my past. :ironic:

yeah, during my first big make-out in Central Park, about 10 undercover police jumped out of the bushes holding a scared pimply kid who, they said, had been "getting off" while watching us.. my date and I laughed at them all and said "so what" and walked off..they were amazed we didn't want to press charges..gee how romantic that was...

I kinda remember the first. Eighth grade. I think we went to a high school play (My Fair Lady). I definitely remember the first date with my wife. That one happened on May 18, 1967 when we were still fifteen. Had to get my dad to drive us into downtown Pittsburgh for a Junior Achievement Awards Ceremony. We been together since.

Geoff

I wouldn't admit it at the time but my first real "date", not group gatherings with friends at dances or other events was not until I was 18 and had just gotten out of high school. I didn't have a car and actually didn't get my license until a year later when I was 19. No problem as I had my trusty bicycle. This was in the boonies of northern New Hampshire and we went to a regional high school that was incorporated with kids from six or seven towns and that's how I knew her. Unfortunately she lived 13 or 14 miles away but I could cut three or four off of that by pushing my bike across the railroad trestle over the river so I wouldn't have to go around. I arrived at her house early in a warm summer evening a bit on the sweaty side although I had stopped just before her house and attempted to cool off. Fortunately she did have a car and we went to a snack bar and had supper and then went to the movie theater to see Raiders of the Lost Arc. When we arrived back at her house it was pouring rain. Now this was one of the more stupider things I had done. My friend who always had dates whom I looked up to had given me the advice to not accept a ride home. Not sure what his basis was but I stupidly listened to him so when she offered I declined and said I'd be ok. Because it was so dark, rainy and miserable, I couldn't see well enough to take the railroad trestle short cut so it was 13 or 14 miles home at midnight in the dark with nothing but my trusty little generator headlight to guide me. I guess now I can understand why, when shortly after that she said we were only going to be friends.

KC2IXE said:

My wife and I were childhood sweethearts - We had known each other for years when we started 'dating' - and I will tell you that the first offical date probably had 10-15 friends along

Click to expand...

I've never been married but that reminds me of myself. I've never been on an official date. My "dates" consisted of time spent with various girls along with male friends on the D train home from Bronx Science. Two years after I graduated I spent some time on the train with my only true love (she was two years behind me in Bronx Science) while I was commuting to college and she was in her last year of HS. We were too young to take things to the next level (i.e. no money, no time, both of us very reserved) and unfortunately never got in touch with each other later on. My biggest fear was that the two of us would end up getting totally bored, or hating each other, without any real money to do anything worthwhile. Both our families were pretty poor at the time. After her I totally lost interest in dating or the opposite sex. How did you manage to overcome those kinds of dilemmas with your childhood sweetheart/wife to be? I think it's really nice when these kinds of things work out. I wish it had for me. I'd probably have had a totally different kind of life.

jtr1962 said:

...snip...How did you manage to overcome those kinds of dilemmas with your childhood sweetheart/wife to be? I think it's really nice when these kinds of things work out. I wish it had for me. I'd probably have had a totally different kind of life.

Click to expand...

Ah, the ride home on the D, and the typical BxSci akward geek stuff - I lived that too - and looking back at it, there were 1-2 girls interested in me at school, but I had no clue... (but like I said, it worked out)

How did Mary and I start dating? Simple - after about say 6 months of her dropping some NOT so simple hints that she wanted to date me, and ME totally not getting it (Like I said - I was the typical geek/nerd), she grabbed me, and gave me a big kiss - Now THAT I still remember - and can tell you the date and place, so if you want to consider that a 'first date'

We just kept hanging out - still saw our friends, but also saw each other. Sometimes I had cash for a movie, sometimes I didn't but she did...

Then when I went to college, I went local - Queens College. The 'interesting' part was that if I walked home (and given Flushing Transit in those days it was faster to walk), I had to walk right past her house, so it became natural to drop in and say hello, at least for the 2 years until she went of to school - NYU - so again, we stayed in the area

Now the joke - I never proposed to Mary!! It was like "OK, what do you say we get married July 16th next year" - and she said "OK, that date is good". I think it was while I was walking her across the QC campus, while she was taking summer classes

So, how did I get up the nerve? I didn't - Mary guided our relationship along

To: KC2IXE ~

I am so horribly jealous of you right now.... Most of us have to go out and find a good woman. Have to dig through a ton of manure; before finding a rose.

But you didn't even have to buy a shovel.... If you know what I mean. :thumbsup:

KC2IXE said:

How did Mary and I start dating? Simple - after about say 6 months of her dropping some NOT so simple hints that she wanted to date me, and ME totally not getting it (Like I said - I was the typical geek/nerd), she grabbed me, and gave me a big kiss - Now THAT I still remember - and can tell you the date and place, so if you want to consider that a 'first date'

Click to expand...

OK, that explains a lot. However, when both of you are like that, as was the case with me and her, it took literally forever before we would admit to having any feelings beyond friendship, and even then it was implied rather than said. If would often be a case of first one party hinting, and the other just not getting it, and vice versa. Kind of funny in retrospect. At least in the end we both knew how we felt, just didn't really know where to go from there. She actually lived only about three-quarters of a mile away, so continuing things wouldn't have been overly difficult if only we could have figured out how.

"The horror...the horror..."
"I dreamed of a snail, sliding down the edge of a razor blade."
Kurtz, "Heart of Darkness"

Can someone define 'date'? Can it actually be a 'date' with 10-15 friends along? Does someone actually have to call it a date? Do you have to kiss or something for it to be a 'date'?

I've been out with girls where she told people it was a date, but I didn't think it was. I've hung out with girls individually and knew it wasn't a date. I've hung out with a whole bunch of friends in a group, only to have one girl think I liked her, and somehow thought I was her boyfriend. I only found out about that one after other people told me about it; I was in school in a different state at the time! :shrug: I've even asked a girl out to have her say 'no', then later on when we were actually dating, she got mad at me because I didn't remember our anniversary, which she says happens to be the day she said 'no'. :thinking: I don't get girls. :mecry:

Freshman year in HS, English Honors class. Lost an arm wrestling contest to the pretty friend of my first date (who was to be my girlfriend throughout most of HS). I forgot where we went or what we did on that first date. What I do remember is that she attended an all-girl Catholic school prior to HS. Those repressed types have always been my personal faves :devil: ...

A date is ia date if you both make plans to meet with the objective of enjoying each other.

If the objective is to enjoy your time with 15 people.... well thats' not usually a 'date'.


There are, of course, other definitions. Usually a guy and a gal will have different views on the exact definition.

Daniel

Do I remember my first date? Afraid not. First date with my wife? Also not sure.

My wife and I were very close friends for several years before we discovered each other romantically. I vividly remember our first kiss, and the first time we made love, but we'd hung out together and done lots of friend type stuff for years before that. When did it become dating? :thinking:

:buddies:

P.S. I adore my wife. For some reason she puts up with me, and I do my best to be worthy of her. We both credit the strength of our marriage today to our long standing friendship before becoming lovers.

I have yet to start, but you guy's stories remind me of the social lifestyle of the 60s...I wouldn't mind taking that trip back in time.
It doesn't feel right to date these days...not when just about everyone around you guy/girl has sex on the brain:candle:

Sub_Umbra said:

"The horror...the horror..."
"I dreamed of a snail, sliding down the edge of a razor blade."
Kurtz, "Heart of Darkness"

Click to expand...

I cringe to ask how your experience was :sweat: