You can all lower your collective eyebrows, I am not dating. Although I have been considering the possibility. I waver somewhere in the no-man’s land (ha!) between why not and why bother. Thinking about the possibility of dating has brought to mind a date that I had in the long ago past.

I was never one to date a lot. A nasty combination of shyness and lack of confidence always seemed to interfere. But one fine night somewhere back in the late seventies a friend from high school asked me out to a Neil Young concert. I believe it was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young… if memory serves.

To be honest, I barely remember the music from that night. I cringe at the memories instead.

First off, I had known this person for a few years. It had been obvious through high school he liked me. I liked his personality but I knew I did not favour him in the same light. Being fully honest, I also know I likely would not have gone out with him if it hadn’t been for the concert tickets. Strike one. Intentions on a date should be about the other person, not the activity.

Keep in mind, it was the seventies; I was much more ‘pharmaceutically naive’ than he was. Therefore, I became a little woozy after smoking a little something-or-other. When he noticed this, he suggested we leave the concert floor and go out in the hallway. Of course we missed part of the concert. Strike two.

When I recovered, I realized I was missing my purse. Strike three. 

We both spoke at once. I said, “Oh no! I lost my purse!” while he said, “Oh no! Somebody ripped you off for your purse!” And in that instant I realized we saw the world from two different perspectives.

We missed even more of the concert as we had to return to where we had originally been sitting. Lucky for me, my purse was right where I left it.

When the concert was over he took me for pizza. By this point, I was feeling very awkward over how the evening had gone and we did not even kiss good night. Game over.

To finish the story, I ran into this man about ten years ago. We spent a few minutes catching up and of course we talked about the concert. He still had the ticket stub. Now, don’t think for a moment he had saved the ticket stub as a momento of his enchanted evening with me. He did not. He told me he kept the stubs for every concert he’d ever been to. 

During our conversation I apologized for having been such a dud of a date. He assured me I had nothing to be sorry for, but still, I felt better. We had a laugh and wished each other well. 

I hope reading this has given all of you a laugh — I know I’ve had a good laugh writing it.

I’m sure everyone has a story of a terrible date. Some of you probably even married the other party. Or, perhaps they married you.

Stay safe everyone.

Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger.  Facebook or Twitter.