After moving to Omaha and teaching for a couple of years across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I grew tired of driving a car that smelled like a mildewed basement. My poor Chevy Monza had suffered through a Nebraska flood back at the farmhouse, and the car stank. I couldn’t afford a new… Continue reading Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
Category: dating
Easy Rider
My neighbor, Joan, would roll her parents’ car out of the garage when we were in 9th grade so we could go driving in the middle of the night during her slumber parties. We’d fall into fits of hysterical laughter when Mr. Bast, the milkman, would go by in his milk truck. But we didn’t… Continue reading Easy Rider
Total Eclipse of the Date
The last solar eclipse over the continental U.S. was on Monday, February 26, 1979. Claudette worked in the x-ray department at Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. She and her co-workers took some x-ray film and went outside to look at the sun through the film. They were not in the path of totality (had… Continue reading Total Eclipse of the Date
Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
The college mixer was hosted by the men in Lorch House in Friley Hall, in the heart of the Iowa State campus. Tappan House, the top two floors of my dorm, Barton Hall, was invited. Yes, I am old. Yes, dorm floors are co-ed now. This was in the days of the dinosaurs. The usual… Continue reading Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
The college mixer was hosted by the men in Lorch House in Friley Hall, in the heart of the Iowa State campus. Tappan House, the top two floors of my dorm, Barton Hall, was invited. Yes, I am old. Yes, dorm floors are co-ed now. This was in the days of the dinosaurs. The usual… Continue reading Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
Escape
Scott answered a personal ad in the Contra Costa Times for a woman looking for a date. Remember newspapers? They were ink-on-paper affairs that folded in half, but not shiny like a magazine. A magazine was a booklet of ads, stories, and photographs with a theme that was published weekly or monthly. Back to the… Continue reading Escape
Escape
Scott answered a personal ad in the Contra Costa Times for a woman looking for a date. Remember newspapers? They were ink-on-paper affairs that folded in half, but not shiny like a magazine. A magazine was a booklet of ads, stories, and photographs with a theme that was published weekly or monthly. Back to the… Continue reading Escape
Five Minutes in Philly
(re-run) She was tall and blond. He was taller and had reddish hair. They were both at Rite Aid in Valley Forge. Matthew had come in for his hair gel, LA Look, to maintain his spiked hair. He saw her in aisle 12. “I have trouble finding hair products for men,” he said, testing the… Continue reading Five Minutes in Philly
Rocky Mountain Low
(re-run) He was the good-looking cousin of my best friend. Tall, tan, and bearded, with a killer smile, it was love at first sight. Marcus had moved from Minnesota to Colorado to be near his sister. He asked if I wanted to come out and go backpacking with him. I said yes but that my… Continue reading Rocky Mountain Low
Prom Be Gone
(re-run) It was supposed to be junior prom at Stoughton High, but it got cancelled (thirteen years before the movie Footloose). Patsy wasn’t going steady with anyone, so she wasn’t too upset. At the last minute the school arranged a dance in the high school gym, but with no decorations, no court (no prom queen),… Continue reading Prom Be Gone
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 