Enthusiastically, Dawn

It’s the month of roses, red, chocolate and hearts. Bonnie, at Faithbarista has given us the prompt “Love” to write about and share. I have been thinking back to the  early days- pre-marriage, in light of Valentine’s Day, and thought I would join in with a loving, but humorous look back.  I hope you enjoy this stroll down memory lane with my hub and I back to our first “get together” as friends.

Here’s what I remember: 

 Our first date. It wasn’t really a date. It was mutually agreed beforehand that it was not a date. Clearly. At least that is how I remember it. It was just a night out to see a movie. In a faraway land, that I knew not. In Rhode Island. Smallest state in the United States. Just sayin’.

He drove. I have no recollection of what I wore, or what he drove. Or what I was thinking, initially. Except, this is not a date. We started our “un-date” with a movie which was just released called Scarface, I don’t remember much except that it was gross, bloody, violent and scary. It definitely made me think twice about moving to Florida, at least in the eighties. Of course, that movie went on to it’s own history and fame. What I do remember is He drove and we got lost. In Westerly, Rhode Island. A place neither of us was very familiar with at all, at the time, being small time Rhode-Islanders and all. You think it’s easy living in the smallest state in the United States? There are pockets of RI that I swear are not even on the map. However, I feel pretty safe, relatively speaking when I consider states such as Texas, Maine and California. But, still when you are lost, you’re lost and everything seems foreign and you just want a familiar highway, or at least a sign. A landmark. In Rhode Island we live by landmarks. If you can’t give a proper geographical landmark in Little Rhody, you are not a true Rhode Islander. Course if you are not native to RI, the landmarks are meaningless, but that is a story for another day…Remember this is before the days of GPS, Google and Yahoo Maps!

Guess who asked for directions? Oh, wait let’s back up…guess who drove endlessly until I finally pulled rank and asked him to pull into the only place we could find a human being to ask for directions at the late hour (it was @ eleven PM). It was a creepy motel type place, which was not unlike a certain Norman Bates motel. It had a long driveway leading up a hill and it sat low to the ground with one light in the main office. Frightening. Boy, was he in trouble when he finally got back home to Johnston! He broke curfew. And that friends, was the first of many car-rides together. It was also one of many rides together to many places. He mostly still refuses to ask for directions…until I finally pull rank. Or we run out of gas.

 That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. It’s all I remember. Understand this was  about 30 years ago. ACK! Did I just say that out loud? 

Now we will hear  another version. Here is my Hubby’s  version of that first outing that will forever be known to us as The Night We Got Lost on What was NOT a FIRST DATE.

Here’s what He Remembers…

For the record, I,  being the writerly type, who is doing the writing, will edit or adlib as I feel is appropriate. Ahem. Also, for some reason he communicates in bullet points (or asterisks) not paragraphs. Sigh. Men.

So, here’s what he says he remembers:

*He was driving his 1976 convertible, silver, Buick Le Sabre (oh, please stop me…just taking notes here) which his dad had purchased from his aunt as his first car. (He is so sentimental)

*He picked me up at my grandmother’s “home”- literally, it was elderly housing at the time.

 *He was nervous about meeting my Italian Grandma, having already had his own. With good reason I might add. My grandmother threatened one of my former boyfriends in this manner, “If you hurt my granddaughter, I’ll shoot you. I don’t care if I go to jail, I’m an old woman.”

*He had on his long blue Pea Coat (what guy remembers this?) with mints in his pocket (really?).

 *We went to the movie-after which, at some point (he admits) he drove the wrong way out of the parking lot. (Since we have been married he no longer is able to admit when he is lost…it’s some kind of marriage disease, apparently.)

*We ate at a restaurant that had a toy train that went around a track that circled the dining area near the ceiling.

*He remembers we took a “left ” out of the restaurant– and stopped at a hotel to get directions (If we had been married, we would have driven in circles till the cows came home-no married man will ever ask for directions. Certainly he would not allow me to ask either. It’s like accepting defeat. We have had more driving scenarios with me begging to just stop at a gas station to ask and him smugly refusing.)

*I (not he) went into the hotel to ask for directions. (God’s prophetic humor is woven into our story from the start-CLEARLY).

*Says he: “We had only needed to take a right out of the parking lot to get back home.” (Notice how he has brought up directions three times? This is absolutely a male fixation. They must know where they are going. If they don’t, they refuse to admit it and/or ask for directions.)

*He got home after curfew and his dad was waiting up for him. His dad didn’t believe the story about us getting lost in Westerly BUT “big brother” stuck up for him because he confirmed the restaurant with a train did really exist.

*Dad took the car away from him for two weeks.

 He’s a keeper for sure, and I love that guy. Maybe I’ll even buy him a new Pea Coat for his birthday (and even throw some mints in the pocket!)

Happy Valentines Day, Honey. (Please note, he only reads my posts if I write about him.)