Best First Date - Ever

 He picked me up in his red convertible, a hand-me-down car that made me smile everytime I sat beside him in the front seat.  We were on our way to the first football game of the season, an away game at Colgate.  It was a perfect fall day in upstate New York - sunny, blue skies, high clouds, a soft breeze.  

We found a place in the bleachers.... just above the fraternity brothers of the boy I'd broken up with the night before.  TBG was oblivious.  I was mildly embarassed.  The Sigma Chi's were not amused.  

The game ran long; there was no snack stand.  By the time we began the drive back to Ithaca, hunger had given way to I-Need-Food-NOW!!!  We stopped for what remains one of our 10 Best Meals Ever - Carroll's Hamburgers, twelve cents each.  We stood at a high counter, overlooking the parking lot, as we chowed down.  Such ambiance.  Such delectable delights.  It was absolutely perfect.  

But we weren't finished, not by a long shot.  

He dropped me off at my sorority house to change clothes, then picked me up in his then filled with friends car for a ride into the country. Along the way we crossed a farmer's land, and he, like the Sigma Chi's, was not amused by our presence.  He shot at the car.  We laughed and drove on, never for a moment thinking that anything bad could happen to us.  

I was 18.  I was invincible.

His fraternity brothers were hosting a party.... and what a party it was.  There were multiple bands, and records playing softly between sets.  They were roasting a pig - a whole pig on a spit - over an open fire.  The front yard boasted a leaf enclosed tree house.

We climbed up the ladder.  We were alone while surrounded by friends.  

A first kiss, under a starry sky, music wafting through the air....... Best First Date Ever.