Mark's story
Oh my God, Jen had
accepted!
She was actually going to go out with me.
I stripped off and ran a hot bath: I wanted to be as clean as could be, and this student slums apartment doesn't have a shower, so it's baths for me. I shampooed and washed up, and then shaved. Time to pick out the right clothes.
Well, for me, that meant khakis. This was a few years before the preppy look was in, but I still had some khakis. We weren't allowed to wear jeans in high school, so I had several pairs of slacks, and the khakis looked better than any of the others. Trouble is, I didn't have the best shirts in the world. I wore t-shirts most of the time, but that wasn't good enough for a first date, even at a place as casual as Joe B's. Finally I found one to wear, and I got out the ironing board and pressed it, along with the khaki slacks. Clean socks, black, and my dressiest shoes - which weren't all that dressy, just penny loafers - and that was as good as I could do for this evening. I figured that I'd brush my teeth and use Listerine just before I left my apartment.
It was only a few blocks to Blazer Hall, the dorm where Jennifer lived. Down Stone Avenue, right on East Maxwell, then down whatever that street in front of Blazer Hall was called; it wouldn't take ten minutes to get there. I could get there in five, but I didn't want to rush and maybe break a sweat.
I was supposed to pick up Jen at 6:30, but I was about ten minutes early. Guys weren't allowed on the residence floors in the girls' dorms in 1972, but there was a receptionist desk in the entrance, and I could get the receptionist to call up to Jen's room. It sure seemed like there were a lot of girls in the lobby, looking at me, and I found out later that most of them were from Jen's floor; apparently the word had gotten out, and I was getting checked out. The receptionist called up, and a couple of minutes later, Jen came down, looking like I had never seen her before.
Oh, my God, she looked really good! I'd never seen her in anything but those too-long, too loose skirts that she wore, and knee socks and simple blouses. Today, she was wearing some new jeans that looked good and stylish on her, some half-fancy sandals, and a simple white shirt, but one that looked a lot more fashionable than I was used to seeing on her. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail, and it wasn't her normal, partly frizzy hair. I had thought that she was kind of cute before, even though she never did anything to make that obvious, but today she looked pretty. I had about four seconds to decide how to greet her, and I really wanted to give her a quick kiss, but was afraid that might be too much, too soon. I settled on a simple, "Hi," which she returned, looking a little nervous. I just hoped that I didn't look as nervous as I felt. When she smiled at me, the nerves went away. We got close together, and she was about to say something, when a flashbulb went off: one of the girls in the lobby actually took a couple of pictures! Jen turned about seventeen shades of crimson at that, and I was a bit embarrassed myself.
"You two have fun," one of them shouted, as the girls scurried upstairs.
"Your friends?" I asked as we were walking down the outside steps.
"Yeah, the girls from my floor. Somehow the word that I had a date spread like wildfire."
"Does that bother you? You're not upset that I asked you out, are you?" I probably shouldn't have added that last part.
"Well, it bothers me a little, but Monica and Rachel really wanted to help, and they pushed me a bit, but I could tell that they were happy for me."
"Are you happy for you?" Another question I regretted the second I asked it, but it worked out well.
