I was 34, and not dating much. What was worse, I worked so much, I was not meeting any young ladies who were "marriage material."
It was 1993. If my life to that point could be put on a tombstone it would say, "Here lies a good fellow who left this world much too soon, a man who never got the women he wanted, or wanted the women he got."
My name is Seth. I lived in the American South, along the Dan River, in the historic city of Danville, Virginia--the last Capital of the Confederacy! It is located on the Virginia-North Carolina border, just north of Greensboro.
I worked then as a dispatcher for a nearby sheriff's office. We generally worked twelve hour shifts, which were brutal. Three good things about that job though--it paid well, it was interesting every day, and our extra long shifts often gave us extra long weekends. In brief, my work life was pretty good, my personal life was pretty bad.
Socially speaking, I needed to figure out a new way to meet a nice woman who was sexy and single. I wanted to be married by the time I was 35. At least that was my goal. My best years were passing me by, and I well knew I did not have much more time to waste.
So--I put two personal ads in the style section of a newspaper. Personal ads were a big deal back then. People paid close attention to them, and not only the folks looking for a date or a mate. Who doesn't like a good love story, right?
Looking back, I enjoyed writing the personal ads more than going on the actual dates, but it was all a fun process. I created several ads. Since I did not want to put all my eggs in one basket, I ran two ads at a time. If the SWF, 22 to 35 I was looking for did not care for one ad, she might like the other one I put in the paper.
This was not deceptive on my part---just a test to see which ad attracted women, and which ad did not work. There was a knack to writing a good personal ad, and I was going to figure it out. I studied other ads, how risque were they, what seemed to be out-of-bounds? I quickly found that out. One of my early ads was rejected for being too wild, but I re-worked it, and tamed it down. Then it was accepted for newspaper publication. After that I just waited.
The responses came back sooner than I thought. I eventually received 17 letters and dated every lady, at least once. It was expensive, but exciting. I had to keep notes on who I took where, what did we eat, what did we talk about, etc. Above all--was there a love connection?
There was a lot to discover, but finding out all the stuff would be a fantastic journey. How much did I really like the woman? Did they like me? Were they pretty, brainy, did they have good bodies, were they nice people? Did they have a good sense of humor? Did they show any cleavage, show their legs? Had anyone actually flashed me in public during the dates?
Sexy bare legs, and creamy white thighs turned me on. I also had a foot fetish. Sexy sandals or flip flops on a woman have always been hot in my book. Did my dates wear panties, a bra, or neither? What about touch? Were the 17 women hand-shakers, big huggers, cheek-kissers, nymphos, great lovers or both.
You might laugh, but I remember one girl who kept her mouth tightly closed when I tried to kiss her good night. I don't think she had been successfully kissed by a man yet. I had no luck either. She did not want to get physical.
Guess I was not her Mister Right. I could appreciate and understand that. After all, I was not exactly God's gift to women. We all have our flaws, and must recognize our limitations, I suppose.
My favorite story came from a date I went on with a heavy girl, with the big heart, who had clearly been an old maid for a long time. She cared about the feelings of others. Said I'd better get her home by at least ten o'clock, because her parents went to bed early.
So, after weeks of dates with the 17 women, there were four contenders. One was fat, but loved sex. Another was short, but loved baseball. I loved baseball, too. It was no small thing to find a decent-looking woman who knew the sport, knew baseball history, the players, and even trivia. A woman who liked going to baseball games as much as I did. What a find. She was also a good and energetic kisser to boot.
Looking back now from a perspective of the last 30 years--I might have picked her as the winner from the group of 17.
The third contender was the youngest and the smartest of them all, but she was a Yankee. Not a baseball Yankee fan, she was from the North. How would that go over down South with my family and friends? Probably not very well, but I did not care. My mission was more important than petty sectional differences. She was 22 and had just started graduate school at a nearby college. She had actually responded to both my ads, so maybe we had more in common than most. Looked at another way, we both clearly wanted to quickly find a new lover and perhaps a life-long mate. She was 12-years my junior, but neither of us had ever been married. Marriage was something we both expected, sooner than later, especially in my case. I once said, "Where have you been all this time? She said, "grade school." That was clever, but pointed out to me how much age difference we really had to bridge.