THE BLIND DATE
In my late teens in the 1960’s, I worked for a large
government department in a typing pool with about twenty girls in it. Yes, I am
that old. I started off with a manual
typewriter and we had to type up an original and four carbon copies of every
report or letter we did. I used to arrive home every night with black carbon
marks on my sleeve. And don’t get me started on the woes of changing a
typewriter ribbon. But I digress.
In those times in the typing pool, a blind date was a thing
of ridicule. You were looked upon as desperate because you couldn’t find a man
of your own, and had to rely on some other girl’s generosity to introduce you
to her brother, her boyfriend’s mate etc.
Anyway, every year there was an annual ball/formal dance, and if you
didn’t attend, you were socially ruined. It was then public knowledge that you
couldn’t get yourself a man.
My girlfriend and I cringed when everyone else was
discussing their ball gown etc. and we hadn’t even been asked. Well, our fear
of missing out on the ball and the subsequent humiliation led us to contemplate
a desperate plan - the blind date. She lined me up with the guy living across
the road from her, and I lined her up with my cousin who had just broken up
with his girlfriend.
We had a great time at the ball, and no-one ever knew our
dark and deadly secret, we had attended in the company of our blind dates.
My cousin ended up going back to his girlfriend, and I ended
up marrying my blind date.
I have written two novels, set during the 1960’s, Reluctant
Father, and Make Love Not War.
7 comments:
How cool, Margaret. You and Paty Jager have something in common in that you both stepped out of your comfort zone and in doing so found 'your man'.
I do remember typing an original and four copies and changing the typewriter ribbon. Those were the good old days --- NOT! I much prefer my computer with cut and paste capabilities connected to my printer that will print out as many copies as I program it to do. These Are the days for people who type!
Hi Margaret,
It's amazing how much things have changed in the world over the course of a lifetime, isn't it?
One thing that has stayed the same is that "You never know what life will bring." People often find love in surprising places.
Sarah
Margaret, How great that you found your husband through a blind date. Sometimes friends have a knack for finding the right person whether other person thinks so or not.
Sometimes out of desperation comes much more. That's the theme of one of the short stories in a novella I just released.
This month of confessions has been fun!
Hi Judith,
Ah, so you remember those good old days, too. Thought you might. What I really used to hate was that you would be down the bottom of the page and leave a word out, and you would have to re-type the whole page.
No cut and paste in those days to make life easy.
cheers
Margaret
Hi Sarah,
You do indeed find love in unexpected places.
My friend did eventually find the love of her life, a couple of years later, so the story did have a HEA.
cheers
Margaret
Hi Paty,
It has been fun hasn't it? It wasn't so much that I was desperate for a man, I was just desperate to get to that wretched ball, but finding love was a bonus.
Cheers
Margaret
What a sweet story! Congrats on finding a winner!!
Post a Comment