Dating Competition

Michelle (to Colonel): What was your favorite date with Sara?

Colonel: You did the best you could, nobody had cars. And if they had cars, there wasn’t much gasoline. So you rode buses or walked or whatever. It was wartime. And you just made up.

Michelle: What did you usually do when you went on dates?

Sara: You might go to a movie. Or sit in the living room. Or get with another couple and maybe do something, I don’t know, an outdoor movie. Not much to do there. And they had, what they called “fish camps”. We’d go to the fish camp and have dinner and they had a floor and you could afterwards.

Michelle: What type of dancing?

Colonel: Jukebox.

Sara: Jukebox.

Colonel: Jukebox dances.

Michelle: But, what type of dances?

Sara: Ballroom dancing.

Colonel: Ballroom, round dancing.

Michelle: Were you good dancers?

Colonel shakes his head “no”

Sara: I loved to dance and my brother was excellent. He and I loved dancing together because we did well together. Howard wasn’t the best dancer.

Colonel: NO! (Laughs) and not today!

Sara: His music timing would be (claps off rhythm) off. And I’d say, ‘Hmm, hmm’.

Michelle (to Colonel): She keeps you in line!

Sara: He really didn’t dance well. I hate to say that about him, but he didn’t. (Colonel laughs) I guess I didn’t marry him for his dancing!

Michelle: He has other fine qualities.

Sara: Yeah, oh boy. I dated, I knew two ladies who were in charge of the USO. One was one USO and the other, the other USO. Consequently, when someone came in that was really nice, they’d call me. If they didn’t like him, I didn’t get called.

So I had a good choice, but I didn’t meet him that way. But I met this tall, good looking man who was in the navy, he was from Canada. Oooo! He was so good looking that everyone turned around and looked at him! And he was neat, he was a great guy and just the sweetest he could be. And my mother corresponded with his mother. And he said, ‘I’ll be back if I have to crawl’! But I’m afraid I didn’t encourage him.

Colonel: It’s even colder in Canada then it is here!

Sara: I wouldn’t have liked it a bit!
(All laugh)
Sara: But he sure was good lookin, it was hard to refuse a good lookin guy.

Michelle: You’ve got another good lookin man other there (referring to Colonel).

Sara: Yeah, I know. He had other qualifications.

(Colonel laughs)

Sara: And then I had a local one that was his biggest competition.

Michelle: Who was that?

(Sara pauses)

Colonel (forcefully): Dana Jones.

Sara: Dana. He was going into service. So he quit his job and was going into service. So he said, ‘now please, when I come back lets take up when we ended, now’. So when he came back, I had a date with Howard. And one of my first dates, or second dates with him. So I didn’t know Dana was coming back. So I said, ‘Dana I’ll get you a date’. And I got him a date with a good lookin’ girl next door. And I thought, ‘I’m going to loose him cause she’s so pretty’. I probably did loose him because he couldn’t stand the sight of seeing me with Howard. He went onto go into the service and he became a… a…

Colonel (interrupts): He became a pilot for Delta airlines.

Sara: He became a pilot in the service. He made it home, which was wonderful. I knew his mother well. And when he got back, he applied and became a pilot. Since he was a pilot, he flew for, um for… what airlines?

Colonel: Delta.

Sara: Yeah, Delta, Delta. Until he retired.

(Colonel puts his head down and shakes it)

Michelle: Look at you (Colonel) shaking your head over there!

Colonel: Interesting history!

Sara: Well, he was good lookin’! He was Howard’s stiffest competition! Yep, I really liked Dana. Well my brother met him first and then I got to know his mother.