While it's now closer to 30 years than the 21 referenced in this article every word still rings true. You can search a few of my posts and get a feel for how things rest today. I've been as fortuinate as can be in life.
More important thought is the basic premise, a primise that I'll admit I did not understand at the time due to being blinded by hormones to the point of being able to see only long thick hair and soft round........well you know how it is when you're a teenager........I couldn't think logically.
But the premise is this: That love and committment are to be buttressed by a commonality of intrest, at least to some degree. Love ( Lust actually. ) is not enough for that will cool with age, but a appreciation for common intrests will last.
Sadly these things only become visable as the hair goes gray, which to some extent explaines the devorce rate.
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A second date in the great outdoors
You remember your first, what about the second?
By BEN WILLIAMS
Special to The Record
Here's a quick quiz for the married among you.
Where did you go and what did you do on your second date?
That's right, your second date.
Everyone remembers their first date and much significance is generally attached to it; but how many remember their second date and how significant was it?
Take a moment and try to remember what you learned about your future spouse on your second date. That is what dating is all about, learning.
Dating is about discovering another person and there is no better place than the outdoors to bring out the "real" in someone.
For our second date, Louann and I headed off in my old International Scout with my father's 14-foot skiff in tow. Our destination the Guana dam.
My intent was to launch on the Intracoastal side and after castnetting some bait, to work a few of the shell bars in the area in search of a trout or a red.
Actually, if I was truthful, I was praying we would just catch something so I could be the successful male hunter-gatherer and she could be the impressed female. It was a brisk fall morning, bright and clear with the promise of a warm afternoon and only a hint of a breeze.
As I readied the boat for launching, Louann, her rather small, 16-year-old frame, clothed in my father's Korean War-era tank jacket, and her feet protected by a pair of three size too big rubber boots -- sloshed around in the shallows.
Once the boat was in the water, the castnet was put into action.
Louann carried the bucket and assisted in picking out the mullet, minnows and small shrimp that we would use as bait.
This was a slower than usual process because she had to inspect, and return to the water, all the other small creatures dropping from the net.
I don't think the egret following us understood why she was putting what was rightfully his back into the water, but he persistently followed us anyway.
She eventually relented and gave him a treat or two.Sadly, the egret was far more interested in our bait than were the trout and reds.
Even though a couple of blues had livened things up, I decided we should shift tactics and use some of the shrimp we had caught, as dead bait, out in the deeper water.
This provided us with a almost immediate reward as Louann's rod bent over.
I grabbed the net as she reeled and in a few moments a hardhead cat lay in the bottom of the boat.
As I searched around for a rag and the pliers (to this day I still use both on saltwater cats) Louann grabbed the catfish, removed the hook and without asking if we should keep it, tossed it back in the water.My future brother-in-law had taught her well.As the afternoon warmed a few more fish hit the deck and my father's old tank jacket eventually gave way to, well, let's just say it was a rather "nice bathing suit".
The setting sun found us heading up A1A, a couple of nice whiting, which my mother would later let us cook in her kitchen, riding in the cooler. I don't know if the female was impressed with the male hunter-gatherer but I can tell you for certain that the male hunter-gatherer was well impressed with the female.So what did I learn on the second date?
Yeah, I know, the "nice bathing suit" and, yes, it did weigh heavily on my young brain; but what other discoveries had the outdoors helped me to make?
I had seen a natural inquisitiveness as she inspected the small creatures we caught in the net. I'd seen a glimpse, albeit mud-speckled, of a girl who knew she could be female without being primped, pampered and powdered.
I'd seen a girl who had not bought into the notion that there were things she should say "yuck" to.
I'd seen someone who was as interested and impressed with the natural world as I was and she wasn't put off by the fact that it was dirty.That second date was well over 20 years, two kids and hundreds of fishing and hunting trips, ago.
Life's been good and the discoveries made on the water all those years ago ring true today.
As we head off this afternoon to spend the last couple of hours in our tree stands I am thankful I made those discoveries before some other lucky guy did.If, as I hope, the editors at The Record have suffered me the kindness of printing this article on Jan. 17, I thank them and to you, Louann, happy 21st anniversary.
