Your first date story, too, has a familiar ring and I hope you don’t mind my sharing mine here.

My first “date” with my now-beloved was on an evening at ACU when Kenny Rogers and the First Edition were performing at Moody Coliseum. We were both freshmen and the semester had barely started. However, I wasn’t planning to go; a combination of having neither money nor interest. Having just arrived from the East Coast it was the Stones, Jethro Tull, Yes, ELP & Alice Cooper that normally got my concert allowance. I had asked Jeanette to go do laundry with me and I thought she had agreed. After taking my clean laundry back to the barracks (my dorm) & feeling a little down from having been stood up on my first ACU date, I decided to just drop in on the show and catch the ending. When the lights came up, and I stood scanning the crowd for no one in particular, there she was, just up and behind me less than 15 feet away. She and her roommate, Jan, were bookending some good-looking guy that looked as Californian as they were. Our eyes met. I nodded, half-smiled and walked out of the coliseum, probably rolling my eyes at the nerve of this girl. Later I’d find out she hadn’t realized the laundry date was so serious.

I had a lot to learn and now 35 years later I can easily say that she’s taught me many wonderful things. Unfortunately, I’m still working on the “date” thing.