{"id":572,"date":"2024-04-09T01:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T01:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2024-02-18T17:09:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T17:09:30","slug":"greatest-date-ever-until-ace-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=572","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Date Ever (until Ace)  [1983]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I didn&#8217;t even know her name yet<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One of the folks Nick mentioned I should call once back in Minnesota, a union organizer, played softball on a men\u2019s softball team and hung out with the pro-IRA Irish crowd.&nbsp; So now I was playing on two softball teams (read &#8220;Riff Raff&#8221; story) which was the other reason I\u2019d wanted to move back to Minnesota.&nbsp; First was that I liked the politics better in Minnesota compared to the intractableness of Philadelphia; and secondly, nobody I knew in Philadelphia played ball.<\/p>\n<p>After our games we hung out in a St. Paul \u201cthree-two joint\u201d famous for allowing a little pot smoking at the back tables.&nbsp; One night while at the bar ordering another pitcher, this very pretty&nbsp;woman asked what\u2019s all the fun about.&nbsp; Before bringing the pitcher back to the team table, we agreed to meet the next night same time same place.&nbsp; I didn\u2019t even know her name yet.<\/p>\n<p>Well, of course I show up, and there she is.&nbsp; We have a beer and tell each other our names.&nbsp; She says, \u201cLet\u2019s go for a ride in my car.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_573\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/piper-cub.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-573\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-573 \" alt=\"Best way to the Lavender Inn\" src=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/piper-cub-300x221.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/piper-cub-300x221.jpg 300w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/piper-cub-406x300.jpg 406w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/piper-cub.jpg 715w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-573\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Best way to the Lavender Inn<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cOkay,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere, you drive,\u201d she tells me, handing me the keys to this shiny Corvette parked out in front, \u201ctake the Cross-Town out towards Flying Cloud Airport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, I had never driven a Corvette before, so already this is a real treat.&nbsp; She explains that she knows this special thing about the Airport.&nbsp; I park and then she introduces me to a pilot \u2013 turns out to be the pilot she\u2019s taking flying lessons from \u2013 and, believe it or not, we\u2019re going for a flight with her in the pilot\u2019s seat.&nbsp; It\u2019s a tiny Cessna four-seater; I\u2019m in back and the pilot is co-piloting while she\u2019s taking off.&nbsp;&nbsp; She lands in Faribault (about 75 miles south of the Cities) and there\u2019s a Limo waiting to take just us to the Lavender Inn.&nbsp; It\u2019s a fancy place and somehow the ma\u00eetre-de already knows my last name (did I tell her it at the bar the first night?), \u201cRight this way Mr. Dawkins; we have a table set for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was a fabulous dinner, and she insisted on paying.&nbsp; Back at the airport she tells the pilot to fly us back and we cuddle in the back seat.&nbsp; Of course I\u2019m already thinking this is the Greatest Date Ever, but there\u2019s still more to come.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">Tomorrow:&nbsp; Finding the Cops<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"1\" width=\"100%\">\n<\/div>\n<p>No virus found in this message.<br \/>\nChecked by AVG &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avg.com\/\">www.avg.com<\/a><br \/>\nVersion: 2013.0.3462 \/ Virus Database: 3658\/6913 &#8211; Release Date: 12\/12\/13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn&#8217;t even know her name yet One of the folks Nick mentioned I should call once back in Minnesota, a union organizer, played softball on a men\u2019s softball team and hung out with the pro-IRA Irish crowd.&nbsp; So now &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=572\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1774,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}