Dates

  I have a confession.  I haven't dated girls all that much.  Whether it is because I have been very shy, or because I hate rejection, but I just haven't.  In fact, the first official date I ever had was as a senior in high school.  I asked a girl if she would like to go to Hardee's with me, and she said yes.  It was a spur of the moment thing.  I did hang out with girls during my high school years, but mostly at church and mostly in a group.  There was one girl who I was pretty close to, and we would have long talks as we walked at night, but it wasn't really romantic.  

 When I got to college, the number one thing on my mind was passing my classes and then having fun.  Once again, I hung out with girls but didn't really date.  Group dates were the thing.  Get drunk.  Get high.  Have fun.  That was kind of our mantra at PC.  Theatre people were a little different than the other students.  There were a lot of parties.  One, in particular, where I pinched a girl's butt with ice tongs at a fraternity party.  She couldn't sit down for several days.

 When I moved to Texas, the girls I dated were from work.  Kare, Charlotte and Alex were the main ones.  We had a good time.  Unfortunately, the seminary thought I was anti-social, because I didn't date any girls on campus.  They just didn't interest me.  Besides, my dates liked to drink.  Seminary girls were not as free.

 After moving back to South Carolina, I did go out some with girls from work or church.  There was a rumor going around Belk that I had dated almost every girl who worked there.  If that was true, I would be dead now.  My heart couldn't have taken it.  I did have a few girls I went out with.  Maybe 5 or 6.  One girl in particular I wanted to date.  I mustered up the courage to ask her out.  She said no.  That was the inspiration for the song "She Said No" that was recorded by The Cobbwebs.  The companion song called "She Said Yes" was a fantasy song about what would have happened if she had said yes, and I wasn't prepared for that.  But, she said no in real life.

 There was one girl I dated, when I worked at Rich's.  I took her to my high school reunion.  We went out to eat several times, but she would embarrass me by sending food back for not tasting right.  She did it to try and get free food.  I found out that she lied to me about many things in her life, so I had to break it off.  I can't stand lying in a relationship.  

 So, casual dating isn't really something I do.  Unless, you would call going to lunch with a work friend "a date".  You probably wouldn't.