Dating Anniversary

Do you remember your first date with your spouse?  I do.  It was today (January 28, 1995) when Bethany and I had our first date.  I remember it well because as a man I was a little slow knowing it was even a date. Interested?  Keep reading.

Bethany and I met the first day of orientation at Sterling College in front of Culbertson Auditorium.  We spent a lot of time together because Bethany knew my roommates.  I would have started dating her immediately, but she was not as easily convinced.  Therefore, I determined that dating was out of the picture.

However, during interterm we had a class together called "Civil War" and we were out of class before any other interterm class so we spent a lot of time talking, playing ping pong and pool in the snack bar, and sitting on the couches in the Student Union.  I had a job interview in Wichita and so I had asked Bethany (since she lived in Wichita) if she would ride along to get me to my interview and for her kindness, we would go out to eat afterwards.  Here is where dense J.L. was confused.  I saw dinner as a thank you.  Bethany understood it as a date.

I learned that there might be some confusion and so to make it an "official" first date, I added movie to the deal.  We went to eat at Garden Café in Wichita and then because it was starting to snow headed back to Hutchinson to watch the movie. 

I am grateful for a great first date with the woman of my dreams.  Now, almost 17 years of marriage later, I still enjoy dating her!

The picture above is not from the first date, but is the earliest picture we could find of us dating.  It was taken during Spring Fling 1995.