What was your first date with the person who is now your spouse?

The drive in Theater in Wagga Wagga NSW.

June 1982.

neither of us remember what movie we didnt watch.

We were discussing this . . . we don't do "dates" . . . never did . . . the closest might have been the meeting in Salem, Massachusetts of Abuzzards, which was about two and a half years after we met . . .

Our first date was just a Sunday afternoon drive. We listened to reggae music and strolled in the park, talking and getting to know one another.

Our first 'date' was aborted in the vernacular by the expression, "Why would you want to do that"?

MA took me a cast party for "Little Mary Sunshine" in Concord N.H. and on the way back to Concord he took a wrong turn in a snow storm, put the car in a ditch. Used all the gas for heat, when it got light I put all the extra clothing we had on and walked to a farm house who called the County Agent who got the car out of the ditch and took MA to the hospital. He almost froze to death. It was the coldest night of the year.

Mmm - was it love at frost-bite?

We don't use the word "date" in this context. Instead we talk about going for a "night out."

Our first night out was at a Bjorn Again gig in 2000. They're an Abba tribute band. I detest Abba's music and sacrificed a lot of credibility amongst my music-loving friends by going along (my wife was and is a huge fan). Still compromising for love today.

Mr. P. asked me out to dinner at a local restaurant. When we walked in, the first thing he said that he wasn't hungry. (that should have clued me in! ) After awhile, he said that he had to go to the restroom. He must have been gone about 20 minutes, and I was certain that he had left. I even had a fantasy about him crawling out the bathroom window.

I was ready to leave myself when he returned, saying that he was having digestive problems. So, a couple of years of dating, and 41 years of marriage later, I am still dealing with his various and sundry allergies, and digestive problems. It hasn't always been fun, but well worth it!

So you just didn't call them dates? Clarify please

My husband and I knew each other and were just friends in college. He was a Sig Ep and his friend was dating my best friend and room mate. I left that college to attend college closer to home. We met up by accident 8 years later - but it was totally different. There was electricity and the first thing I remember going with him to was a Christmas Party for his job. Ours was an interesting and fun courtship.

if it ever happens i'll let you know

HA...me too also, DjjD

Adam Ant! Way cool.

Yeah, it's hard for me to pinpoint, too... I'm not even sure when I actually met him.

What I know -- I lived in a housing co-op and he was applying to become a member of it, summer of 1992. This was a process that involved showing up to dinners and getting to know people before facing a panel and being interrogated -- if the interrogation went well, you'd be recommended to the house to become a member.

I think I met him, briefly, at a party that was held the night before the day that HE thinks he met me. He thinks I'm thinking of someone else and that he met me for the first time after I came stalking home after losing a game of pickup basketball -- I was grumpy and not in the mood to deal with guys I barely knew who I thought I'd met the night before anyway. So when he first met me I wasn't particularly nice.

I'd categorically excluded members of the house from the dating pool -- I'd seen too many house romances go pear-shaped and wanted to stay well away from that -- and he was applying to be a member of the house so he was categorically excluded, in my mind.

Even though he was very cute.

After that, we hung out more (first date yet? not exactly). I guess if I had to pinpoint a moment it would be when he hung around to help me do dishes (which he didn't have to do) and we had a long interesting discussion that included shared literature tastes but lots of other stuff too.

Somewhere around there he ASKED me on a date (biking to a nice spot, picnicking), but a) it wasn't really asked in a date-ish way and I did that sort of thing with platonic friends, too, and b) by the time we got to the arranged date, we'd already made out several times.

Things were definitely complicated by the fact that he was constantly IN my house. We'd hang out, that would come to an end, I'd go upstairs to do something, consider what I thought about him, not come to any conclusions, get hungry and go downstairs to get something to eat and he'd be in the kitchen chatting with other housemates. Then we'd chat some more. Etc.

The turning point was the poem. Things were percolating along in a friendly way when he wrote me this quite lovely poem and left it on my bed. A nosy housemate (is there any other kind?) saw him go in and out of my room and went in to see what was up (doors were usually unlocked). He picked up the poem, read it, and then dropped it/ wasn't sure where it had been/ tried to hide it (never knew which). Upshot was I didn't see it for several days, during which E.G. was going crazy trying to figure out what I thought about it.

When I saw it, I liked it.

Shortly thereafter, the snogging commenced.

A Poem??!! That's so sweet!

We had been working together since beginning of January. I was his boss. In January when he came in to interview with my boss, I was 23 weeks pregnant. Daughter was born on Valentines at 29 weeks. I brought her home from the hospital on March 26th, which was also my birthday, when she finally hit the 4 lb. mark. I carried her in a little basket since she was too little be upright in a carry seat. She went to work with me for the first month or so.

Four days after I brought her home, on April Fools Day, Bear asked if I wanted to go to Darryls for "drinks" and apps after work. He'd already been flirting like crazy for weeks, and I thought it was just him being him since he couldn't possibly be interested in a new mother.

After appetizers and tea, with Kylie in her little basket on the table between us, he said he had to stop to pick up his son. We went by his ex's to do that. It's now around 11pm. Went back to my place to continue the "date" but every time we started to kiss one of the little ones would make a noise, turn over, wimper or something and one of us would have to get up to go check on them. Finally, Bear said he had to get Stephen to his own bed anyways so they left.

We married in October. The rest is history.

El Stud and I first saw each other the first of June when I went to work for the Plainview Daily Herald as a summer intern. We officially met when I had just turned on the safe light to develop some photos, a mouse ran over my foot and I bailed out the door almost knocking him off the ladder he had put up to get stuff down from the 'roof' of the darkroom. He says (gallantly) that he fell in love when he first saw me. I fell in love in late June when I was leaving work through the circulation building and caught him and friend "Mike" doing the dirty bop to "Waterloo". He was so cute when embarrassed. It's still 'our song'. First date was in July at the local drive in theater--the movie was "Onion Head" (Andy Griffith). I came home with 127 mosquito bites. We were engaged by September, married on Valentine's Day, parents by late December.

We're finishing up our fifth decade together.

That's great, Foxfyre. I would love to see El Stud (your husband) post his recollections.

You don't know how difficult it was to convince him to make posts on the football and hockey threads.

RP and I met through the Village Voice personals. I answered his ad. He was looking for a girl with long hair. In those days, December of 1988, you got a mailbox for your responses and they were sent by snail mail. It was up the person snail mailing (snailing?) to provide a means of contact. So I wrote about a buncha silly stuff and included my phone #. I lived in Mineola, NY, in an apartment that was the 1st floor of a house. RP lived in NYC with his folks.

He called (long distance!). We talked (for four hours!). I had plans, lots of plans as I was doing the personals circuit (I rarely paid for a meal out in 1988). This was my last week of doing the personals as I was getting tired of it all. But this guy was fun. He called again a day or so later. We talked (another four hours!). I still had upcoming plans, including with a guy I'd seen before but had no real spark with, but was nice enough. RP called again the following day (we had made plans to meet later that week), and said he wanted to meet me earlier than planned as he enjoyed talking to me so much. I said sure.

I stood up the poor other dude and met RP the following day at the Mineola train station (he took the LIRR in). This was December 17, 1988. We kissed hello. We went to an Italian restaurant, neither of us remembers the name, and shared a Caesar salad and I don't know what else (I remember the salad for whatever reason). Then, heh, he didn't leave for a few days. While he was there, the other dude called and I had to explain to the other dude, who was a little angry but resigned, that I had reconnected with someone from my past (ah, little white lies).

He moved in a little over a year later, just about 1/1/90. We got married 5/25/92 and still share the occasional Caesar salad.

it's a 7 - 8 hour drive between Columbus, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario, so it was a bit of a trip to have a 'date', and turn around and drive back.

On Set's first trip up here, I invited some friends and neighbours over for cookies/tea/drinks to inspect him. If brendalee and the gang (and the BaileyDog) hadn't liked him, I'd have sent him packing. Probably. That might have been our first date if he hadn't already been here for about 24 hours.

We did somewhat datelike things on some of the visits - the Franklin County Conservatory, dinner out, Shrek 2, company Christmas party, brunch with the hamburgers for mrs. hamburger's 70th birthday.

I don't think this counts - he was offering to pay people to dance with me

She took me to see Saturday Night Fever. She saw it just prior to geting to know me, and knew I would appreciate it.