It is a little difficult for me to believe, but it was ten years ago that I first asked a girl on a date. She said yes, and here we are ten years later with a kid, a dog, and a house. As we celebrated last night with a meal at Village Inn, where it all began in the third booth on the right, we talked about how we got there. Here's how it happened.
I first met The Quiet Girl at Pound Junior High. I was in 9th grade, she was in 8th. We played trumpet together in the band. Years later she would claim that I caught her eye from the start. Me? I was a shy, clueless junior high boy. The Quiet Girl was, to me, another girl I was usually too shy to talk to.
Skip forward a couple years to Southeast High School where we were again in the band together. The Quiet Girl and I ended up in the same group of close band geek friends. She gained my interest a few times, but she was dating a guy who -- how I can put this? -- was absolutely nothing like me. I figured, if she is interested in a guy like that, there's no way she would be interested in me.
Eventually The Quiet Girl was single again and it became clear even to a bonehead like me that she liked me. So, I did what every slow-witted male would do in that situation. I spent a month trying to get up the guts to ask her out.
I called up The Quiet Girl on a Tuesday. The band was marching in the Star City Parade that Saturday, so I asked -- probably in between a mess of "uhh"s and "like"s -- if she would like to grab some lunch afterwards. She said yes. And so she became The Date. I let The Date pick where we should eat. She went with our favorite hangout, Village Inn.
I picked up The Date after the parade and we went to the restaurant. The meal itself was uneventful as far as I can recall, though I've been told I hardly ate any of my pancakes, sausage, and eggs. There was a rambunctious kid in the booth behind us. He kept bouncing around and asking, "We go ride in red car now, grandma?" Yes, grandma, please go take him for ride in red car.
We were together for most of the rest of the day, first at a party, later at a basketball game. By the end of the day, and without it needing to be officially declared, The Date had clearly become The Girlfriend. That was ten years ago today.
After that our relationship moved along pretty quickly. I mean, it was only one month later that I held The Girlfriend's hand for the first time (at a showing of The Crucible that we attended with friends to get extra credit for an English class). We were together before school and after school. We were together on the weekends. We talked on the phone for hours every week, much to her father's consternation. The Girlfriend quickly became The Best Friend, and that's when I knew we were set for life.
I said the Three Big Words on our first Valentine's Day. A little while later we had our first kiss. A few months after that I gave her a promise ring. A few years later we moved in together. A few more years and The Best Friend became The Fiancee, and then The Missus. Next came the house, the dog, and, most recently, the kid. Each of those milestones was amazing in its own right. But I got to experience them all with my best friend.
And so here we are ten years later, still best friends, pretty much exactly where our friends figured we would be right now. While we reminisced last night we also pondered the question, Where will we be ten years from now? I don't know how we'll get there, but I'm pretty sure where we'll be:
Eating a meal at Village Inn, where it all began in the third booth on the right.
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Awwww. Neat. Thanks for sharing.
That’s a great story!
It ties my stomach in knots, though. As the father of a 16-year-old girl, the story concerns me. Thanks for giving me way more to think about than I really wanted.
Not your fault though, I just got done talking with a couple of recently-wed/soon-to-be-wed coworkers about their $20,000 weddings.
Ugh!
foxspit - I am known to make fathers nervous with just the question “Really, only a couple years until she’s 18, huh.” Hee hee.
Congrats, Sr. Wilson!
You are devilish jwiltshire! 😊
Funny, but devilish.
So, am I correct in guessing that you graduated from high school in 1998? If so, I’m only (at most) two years younger than you. I guess my lack of a wife, house, dog, and kid made me think that there was a greater age difference than two years between you and I. 😉
Also, that story is disgustingly (yet wonderfully) sappy and cute. 😊
Close, Swid, but it was actually 1997. The Missus graduated in ‘98. Now that I look back, I guess I didn’t make it clear that this happened during my senior year of high school.
So the question is…did Mr. Wilson remember this all by himeself or did he get the Misus to write it all down for him?
Great story. Congrats.
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