A Love Story chapter 2 ~ First Date to Nearly Broken Up...?

I learned to be flirty... or better at it, at least! At the next activity we gathered as a ward to paint a Provo widow's house and clean up her over-grown yard. It's awfully fun to be on one end of a two-man saw when the guy you think is cute is on the other end! That brought about an invitation to ride with him up to Salt Lake City on an errand he had to run. First, though, he had to give his car "Margaret" a bath! I helped him wash her in the parking lot of Helaman Halls. We had a nice drive and got to know a little about eachother. Our first official date was about a week later.

This is how it came about. The phone rang in our apartment. It was one of our neighbor girls up the line (we were on the very north end of our building). She was warning us that Irving (name changed to protect the clueless) was going from door to door asking girls to go to the football game with him on Saturday. Blinds were shut, doors were locked, and I literally saw girls leaving the building rather than be asked out by our ward's most "unique" young man. He had greasy hair, thick glasses, pants that came up to his armpits, and always had one pant leg stuck in the top of one sock. He was a living, breathing stereotype! Of my five roommates, those who were home hid in the back of our apt. in their bedrooms with the music up loud. Only me and Mary Ann the 2nd were brave enough to wait it out. Surely after knocking on a dozen doors he had found someone already! But NO! Knock, knock, knock...I answered the door and at last Irving had found a compassionate soul who couldn't hide from him. But seriously...I did not feel well. I had a sore throat and the sniffles and told him that I didn't think it would be a good idea to be out in the chilly October air for three hours. After that Mary Ann II simply said "No I don't think so" in her straightforward way, he went on to the next floor of the building to continue his quest. (May I just add that he found a lovely young lady later that year who was simply made for him and they were married in the spring!) The phone rang about an hour later. It was Dee calling to ask me to go to the football game with him!! Now, honest little me was stuck in a dilema. I REALLY wanted to go with him so I told myself it was still three days away and I would probably feel better by then so I said "yes". I was then overcome by a severe case of guilt that everyone laughed at me for! It took my roommmates, neighbors and my good home teacher to pull me out of it!



Our first date then, was a Cougar football game with Jim McMahon on the field! The most exciting part to me though, was the fact that this gentlemanly date of mine took my hand to walk me across the street on our way there and never let go! In fact, he tucked our hands together into his coat pocket to keep mine warm! Oooo! For a girl with no experience that was heavenly! In the weeks that followed we did more fun things together until one night he led me to Maeser Hill on the way home. The Karl G. Maeser Bldg. is the oldest one on campus and the hill overlooks Provo. It had snowed so the hill was all white and glowing in the star light. Dee bent over and wrote my name in the snow for fun, but I think he was trying to see if he remembered how to spell it right! Then he took me to the center of the hill and held me close to him. I had never been that close to a boy in my life and I was lost in the feeling. Now, do you recall that I said I wasn't experienced?! I had no idea that he was leaning in for a kiss! I was so caught up in the warm feelings I was having and the beauty of the night that I glanced upward at just the wrong moment and said"Look at the stars! Aren't they pretty?" He agreed with me, but later told me that he thought I was a "mover" as his roommates liked to say. He assumed I was trying to string him along! We went out a few more times and while I was having the time of my life, he thought that I was just not that interested in him.

Maeser Hill...sigh!


The weeks that followed were miserable. He had been taking out other girls in the ward all along and continued to do so although he saw me the most. In fact, it seemed that his goal was to date EVERY girl in the ward. I mourned my lonely weekends and drove my dear roomie Kathy nearly insane! I stared out my bedroom window and watched for the light to come on in his room. I had it bad! Christmas season came and I hoped that Dee would take me up to see the lights on Temple Square as we had talked about once. He took the ward sweater girl instead. I hope they had fun. I cried all through Christmas break but kept it pretty much to myself. I don't think my Mom knew what I was going through.

After Christmas I was so miserable that Kathy took matters into her own hands. She cornered Dee in the library one day and told him flat out that he was breaking my heart. He either needed to date me exclusively or break it off. She also told him that I had never been kissed and was very new to this whole thing. (He refused to believe her on that one & continued on in his assumption that I was just toying with him.) So annoyed was he, in fact, that he took me to a BYU basketball game with the goal of breaking it off before the night was over. I was totally unaware of his intentions and was just plain happy to be in his presence! When it came right down to it at the end of the night he couldn't do it. Something stopped him. He was baffled. I'll be forever grateful!





...to be continued...