Where did you go for you first date with your SO? We went to Red Lobster. And you?

[debm55]

[cloudbase]

1. Mariner's Inn

Northport, NY.

[debm55]

2. Thank you cloudbase. I am sure it was better than Red Lobster.

[NNadir]

11. Hey, I used to take my future wife to restaurants in Northport.

There was one by the harbor that we went to once on a day I will always remember.

That was because, as we were "just friends," I was anticipating her telling me over lunch about her date with her ex-boyfriend the day before. (My heart was sinking thinking ahe was going back to that guy.) So she shows up and I asked her how it went and she turned red and said she was never, ever going to go anywhere with him again. It's turns out he offended her by hitting on the wife of a married couple on the double date, while the husband was hitting on her. Maybe the guys were hoping for a four person orgy. I don't know but I do know there was a zero probability of that happening, given who my wife is.

The ex-boyfriend had showed up at the date bringing a pillow since he was expecting a "roll in the hay" as they say. He never made it into her apartment to retrieve the pillow.

I remember the restaurant because my future wife was sitting with her back to the harbor, looking more beautiful than ever while she expressed her anger at the guy.

I avoided saying "You're beautiful when you're angry," but anyway it wasn't directed at me but at the guy I hoped would go away.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant but it wasn't on Main Street but on Bayview. The harbor was filled with sailboats.

When I moved in with her I made a lot of jokes about the pillow which I used for many years. No pillow ever made me quite so happy, even if it was a cheap lumpy thing.

[cloudbase]

13. Small world.

Glad it all worked out for you.

[NNadir]

23. Yeah, I looked up some stuff on Northport history, and from what I can tell, the restaurant in which that tale...

...took place may have actually been Karl's Mariners Inn on Bayview.

It seems to be closed now.

I am pleased to award a DU heart to someone whose love life passed through the Mariner Inn.

[cloudbase]

24. Thank you so much!

At the time, I was a midshipman at Kings Point, and the young lady in question made the mistake of coming to a mixer at the school. Her second mistake was saying "yes" when I asked her to dance.

The following weekend happened to be the end of quarter long weekend, so I took the LIRR out to see her.

That was 53 years ago, and still going strong.

Thanks again.

[radical noodle]

3. We went to an art fair and...

then to a dinner theater that evening.

[debm55]

4. Sounds very nice. Thank you very much, radical noodle.

[livetohike]

5. We went to a party that some mutual friends were

having in a farmhouse they rented. We were in college so it started around noon on a Saturday and was still going on after midnight.

[debm55]

6. Thank you very much for sharing with us. livetohike. It sounded like fun.

[NNadir]

7. It's hard to say since we were friends before we were lovers.

I was extremely attracted to my future wife. Lots of men around were, pretty much all the male physics, chemistry and other STEM undergraduates and grad students were interested in her; she was dating an astronomy grad student when we first met. Frankly I was just another in the crowd of intrigued men, not all of us with good intentions to be honest, though I'd like to think mine were. I don't think she thought much about me at the time. We knew each other casually and sometimes we talked but we certainly weren't close.

I therefore guess I'll refer to one of the first events where she and I spent the day together alone.

There was a Modern Art retrospective at the Met in New York that I was planning to attend alone. I ran into my future wife on campus and we stopped to talk and I mentioned that I'd be going to the show. She said she would love to go but couldn't afford the expense.

This struck me as a great opportunity to get to know each other better, for me to understand her on a deeper level, for her to get a little beyond knowing I existed.

I thus said I'd be glad to treat "for the pleasure of your company," my exact words which I remember well. She hemmed and hawwed a bit but finally agreed clearly under the unstated condition that it was not a date but two friends going to an event together.

I remember that day very well, touring the museum. When it closed I suggested taking her to dinner down in Greenwich Village at a restaurant called "Le Figaro" which is still there but far more upscale than it was in those more casual days. I used to go there a lot when I went to jazz clubs in the city, before and after shows.

It was a purely wonderful day, that day at the Met, followed by the evening in the Village and dinner at Le Figaro and while I wished it was a "date" she would not have described it as one.

However that day set in motion the long friendship existing right through the present day that ultimately became a love affair and the marriage that made my life worth living. I guess 42 years later I can get away with thinking that long after the fact I can declare it a "date."

It will have to do.

[debm55]

9. Very romantic. Thank you for sharing, NNadir and it does sound like a date.

[Mad_Dem_X]

8. He came over to my apartment, and we talked until 3 am

Our first actual date was a comedy show. We were sat up front, and of course all the comedians picked on us!

[debm55]

10. HAHAHHAHAH, Thank you Mad_Dem_X. That is wonderful. At comedy shows, I always sit int the back.

[Mad_Dem_X]

12. We didn't know what we were in for! LOL

From then on, I made sure to sit in the back!

[debm55]

20. Now you know. Sit in the back.

[Mz Pip]

14. Met for lunch

Chinese restaurant, I don’t remember the name.

[debm55]

19. Thank you very much for sharing with us, Mz and Mr, Pip

[ProfessorGAC]

15. To A Movie, Then To The Disco

Yeah, I said disco. Same one we met in.
We went to a local steakhouse on our 2nd date.

[debm55]

18. Yes, I remember you met her at the disco. Much love to you and Mrs. ProfessorGAC

[Mosby]

16. Mr Lucky's in Phoenix

It was a very informal first date.

[debm55]

17. HAHAHAHHAHAHa. Thank you very much, Mosby for sharing.

[emulatorloo]

21. To see Star Wars.

[surrealAmerican]

22. It was the sort of restaurant that more or less typified the mid 1980s:

... a "fusion cuisine" place with less than 10 tables, and a menu written on a chalk board. It was gone within a year.

[OldBaldy1701E]

25. I had a friend who owned many acres in western North Carolina.

We would have parties up there during the warm months. I invited him to come to one of them. We met at the bus station, and we then drove on to the site. We had a great time. My band played, which was the first time he ever saw me performing live.

After that trip, my 'friends' at the site got all weirded out because I had a 'gay weekend', and they kicked me out of their little enclave that I helped found and build. There had been 'gay' people there before, but not with a date, and they had not been 'on the hunt' during their time. (As opposed to the straight people, who were always on the hunt.)

Just goes to show that one should always do little tests to see where one's true friends lay. Because the results will usually disappoint, but are worth their weight in gold once one realizes how much better off one will be once one removes that evil rot from one's life.

Suffice to say, that incident did not slows down one bit.