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Ah the old days. Which for me was only about 16 or 18 years ago, about half my 34 years on earth. To prep for a date from the ages of about 16 to 19 I’d grab a pair of acid-washed Levi’s 501 button-fly jeans, a black concert T-shirt and a pair of high-topped sneakers. I’d snag a handful of $20 bills and head out into the evening.
Then I’d pump about 15 bucks worth of gas into my Chevrolet Nova, drive to the next town and pick up whoever I was dating at the time. We’d grab some food, a movie and snacks for another $20 or so - that was including her stuff. We’d rip up and down the road listening to a new cassette I’d just bought at the then regular, non-super-sized, Wal-Mart. The tunes of somebody such as Poison or maybe White Lion would set me back about $7.
What we saw at the movies and what we ate was of no consequence, I was young and crazy and so were the girls I dated.
When the date ended, I’d go home with cash in my pocket, half a tank of fuel, the aforementioned music and a nice memory of the evening. It was all for less than $45.
Man things do change don’t they?
Now a date entails finding a babysitter, arranging work schedules and spending $45, just on gasoline. Then it’s time to squeeze into a pair of jeans, much larger than the ones from high school when I had a 28-inch waist. Grab a black concert T-shirt and slip into a pair of Doc Marten’s high-topped boots.
Even though my wife Donna and I have more music than a radio station or record store at home, we generally listen to the radio when we’re together. See, I can’t stand her singer-songwriter ballad tunes and she gets a headache from my blaring the creative works of artists such as Metallica and Black Sabbath.
You know, my taste in music seems to have improved proportionately with the expansion of my waistline. That’s weird, isn’t it?
So then we’re off to the movies in an SUV. We get there and all the goofy teenagers with clothes that are too tight and short are there, too. And frankly, there is a lot of poorly made junk on the big screen most of the time.
Even finding a film both of us want to see is not an easy chore. She hates science fiction and I detest anything that looks like the couple will end up having a meaningful conversation during the plot of the movie.
We don’t cruise around since gas is now more than $3 per gallon and then we try to find a place to eat, if we have time that is. We can’t just eat whatever we want anymore. Donna is pregnant with our daughter and I have Diverticulitis, which flares up when I munch on things too spicy or greasy. Dinner will, of course with a few adult beverages and a tip added in, run no less than $35.
After we pay the girl who watched our son, Keegan, tally up the receipts from our debit card and balance the checkbook, our little excursion is revealed to have set us back somewhere between $85 and $100.
It’s not that the quality of the evenings out have improved, just the female company I keep these days. Well, the food eaten is much better. But the expense with increases at the theater, the gas pump, and the addition of a babysitter, the price we have to pay to just have a date out is almost too much.
We joined one of those Internet movie services a few months ago and that’s our big fun time a lot lately. Simply go to the company’s Web site, pick the movies you want to watch and they are shipped to your house. After you watch a flick, drop it in the U.S. mail and a new one comes a few days later. We’re paying about $10 a month and we average five or six movies in that time.
No babysitter, no gas, no goofy teenagers at the theater laughing and acting up or anything to distract us. In fact, it’s a big help when we watch a comedy to be at home viewing a movie. When we laugh too much and miss a line, we rewind it and no one has to whisper, “what did that guy say?”
It’s not the same as a date out on the town, but it gets the job done. We still have a few dates a year and we attend plays and concerts, too. But I take great comfort in sitting in my house and throwing money away on things such as diapers, groceries and utilities.
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