I’m such a diehard romantic that when I looked at today’s date, my first thought, was, oh, it’s a month till Valentine’s Day, and I wished my husband happy-one-month-till. Sappy, I know! To mark the “occasion”, it’s only appropriate that I post a couple of first date stories. One is by Linda, whom you just met in yesterday’s post; the other is by Bernice. And it’s not just sappy stuff. (There’s some pain, the joking kind but also the real kind. Think swollen lips and wartime goodbyes.)
Linda Riley
My First Date
My first date was in the summer before 9th grade. It was with Wayne Evans. He was a year older than me, and had an older brother. We had been hanging out together at the pool playing tetherball and swimming. I don’t remember how it came about that we went to the movies, but we did. My mother and my Aunt Pat went too. They sat in the very back row. At the time I thought it was to give us the illusion of being alone together in the movie theater. Now I realize it was probably so they could keep an eye on us.
I don’t know who picked the movie either. It was The Unsinkable Molly Brown. (I think it starred Shirley MacLaine.) I still remember bits of it – a long staircase and a lot of singing. The movie was an afternoon matinee.
I don’t think my mother and Aunt Pat accomplished much by sitting in the back row because Wayne and I spent a lot of time alone in the living room that summer, kissing. He wanted to try out some things his older brother taught him, like (what I later learned was) French kissing. But I thought you might get pregnant that way so I kept my teeth clenched tightly closed. As a result I spent a lot of time that summer with bruised and swollen lips.
Bernice Moore
My First Date
My husband was my sweetheart. We went to movies and parks and some days we went dancing. The best movie was Cowboys and Indians, and Gone with the Wind, and a lot of army movies. Going downtown and looking in the stores. Going to the zoo and looking at the animals. We did that too. I lived in South Philly. The movies were playing on North Broad Street. There was a drugstore we stopped on the way to get ice cream and cake. We met other guys and girls. Everyone was nice to one another.
PS. When the war came a lot of the guys went to the war. Some got killed. That was sad. My husband and I were married 60 years. He died Jan 1, 1993. I miss him very much.
