March 12, 2013

• Our First Date

        I was out on the truck last week on my required 10 hour break, using some of the time to catch up on my Xanga friends' posts, and one in particular by @Elizabethmarie_1 brought back a flood of memories.  She told about revisiting her first date with her husband and asked if we remembered ours.   

  

         For several months in 1995, while waiting for a training slot at the Air Force's medic training program in Wichita Falls, TX, I drove a taxi in Austin.  Life had brought me to a point where I traded my last active year of service for two in the reserves and since I wanted to travel, the recruiter and a recently discharged friend had talked me into joining a unit at Bergstrom AFB.  When I was notified that my school would start, I took a few of my things and my bicycle up to Wichita Falls, came back and turned my taxi in and caught a bus back to the air base.  

         After getting settled in and starting classes, I began to look for a church.  It was springtime in TX and the weather was hot, so I'd ride my bike in shorts and tshirt, then find a bathroom at the church where I could change into the good clothes out of my backpack to make myself presentable for church.  A couple weeks went by and I had not found a church I liked, so one evening I decided to try Burkburnett, the next town over.  About halfway there, I realized I had misjudged my time and I would end up being a half hour or so late, so as I was weighing my options, about halfway between Wichita Falls and Burkburnett, I came upon a small church called Cashion Baptist Church.  I figured one church I didn't know would be as good as another, so I turned into the parking lot, found the bathroom, got changed and headed into the service, just a little late.  Afterwards, I was introduced to most of the congregation and I changed back into my cycling gear and rode back to base.  I had enjoyed the service and the people and would probably come back.

       Next evening after class, my roommate said some lady from the church I had been to yesterday had called.  They were having dinner and would send a car to pick me up.  I was several weeks into my training.  My pay had been messed up, and they couldn't give me an exact date as to when I would actually get a check.  I had to my name, a few dollars, a sack of potatos, a couple pounds of butter and a couple blocks of cheddar cheese.  My diet was baked potato for breakfast with butter.   Baked potato with cheese for lunch, and baked potato with butter and cheese for dinner.  I may have switched from that exact routine, but you get the drift, so I was waiting eagerly at the appointed time.  When the car showed up, I found out it wasn't a church dinner, just dinner with a family from church who had gotten my info from my visitor's card, and my ride (their 18 y/o daughter) was not happy at being put in this position.  Obviously, her Mama was having the new military guy over with high hopes.  

        I, knowing I would only be there for 3 months, had decided this would be a girl free summer.  I would play on all the intramural sports teams, ride my bike and enjoy any and every adventure I could come across, while not entangling myself in anything that would ultimately be doomed by my transfer out at the end of the summer.  Tina, the girl who was my ride to dinner, after a shotgun wedding at 16, was living the life of a single mom at 18,  waiting out the time required by TX to complete a divorce when one spouse cannot be found.  Both of us saw the setup, and both of us were a little irritated, but both of us were dead set against any romantic entanglements at that point in our lives, and we had already discussed the point and rolled our eyes at her mama's attempts before we got to the house.

        Her daughter, Sandra, was just shy of 2 years old and was a big eyed, dark haired, energetic little doll.  While Tina and her mama fixed dinner, I played with Sandra.  I can't remember everything that was served, but Tina had made her favorite pea salad.  I apologized that I didn't eat foods with mayonnaise, and it was over and done.  Conversation thereafter was between her mama and I while Tina sat sullenly with angry eyes.  Everyone liked her pea salad, and I wouldn't even deign to give it a try.  What an ungrateful jerk I was, and why was her mother trying to set her up with another man when she wasn't even legally rid of the first one yet?  We awkwardly finished dinner and though I wasn't about to eat that pea salad to make things right, I thought I should do something.  I made a proposition. If we could use her mother's car, I'd buy ice cream down at Baskin Robbins in town.  Tina was reluctant, but her mama insisted, so I picked up Sandra and carried her out to the car, and Tina followed us out.    She didn't know that the three ice cream cones represented the whole of my remaining earthly treasure, but it was an olive branch.  I was sorry to have offended and she accepted the token.  Since her mother was not with us and  we had established that neither of us was interested in romance, the conversation was remarkably comfortable for two people who had, a couple hours before, been strangers.  We finished our ice cream, I drove them home. Her mama said come back anytime (her dad was in Korea) there was plenty of food and they needed things done around the house that a man would do.  Tina drove me back to the base, and our first "date" was done.

        I didn't find out 'til later that her mama had tried several times to set her up with new men.  Several of these men had been very nice, but none of them had included Sandra in anything.  My playing with Sandra while they cooked dinner had struck her as unique, and then when I offered ice cream, Tina thought I was another guy trying, despite what I had said, to start a romance.  She was dumbstruck when I picked Sandra up on my way out the door.  That was when, unbeknownst to either of us, the hook was set.

        I simply assumed that if I was to make things right, buying her daughter ice cream might do the trick, and if Tina was going for ice cream she would obviously take her daughter along anyway, right?  I had a good evening, and Tina was easy on the eyes, but her little girl was what caught me.  I was taken.  The offer of daily dinner in exchange for chores to a now penniless soldier was a powerful draw, but I had been charmed by a little girl.

       By the time my pay came through a couple weeks later,  there was a little girl who had stolen my heart and Tina and I were beginning to admit there might be an affection blossoming between us as well.

        

  • 3:55 pm
  • 15 Comments