I Was on the Dating Game and Met Another Girl While On Our Date

My circuitous story of being on The Dating Game.

I was taking a nap on a bench in my freshmen year of college.

It was right before or after my 8 a.m. class.

An attractive woman came over to me and asked me a question: “Would you like to be a contestant on the Dating Game?”

The Dating Game was a 1980’s tv show where a girl asked questions to three guys on the other side of a wall and then she chose one of them as a date.

The guy and girl won a weekend trip to somewhere like a ski resort and, if they were lucky, the guy and the girl might even make a love connection.

“Sure,” I said, getting up into a seated position.

She gave me a flyer with a date and address for an audition. I must have done well at the audition because I was selected to be the one asking questions.

Or I had the “look” they were looking for in a guy. Six-foot-three. Dark with all make-up they put on my face. And, subjectively speaking, good-looking.

Seriously, the amount of mak-up they put on you was like painting a wall, and it was still coming off my face a couple of days later in my dorm shower.

But now I knew what it was like to be a movie star on a set.

The Dating Game experience

I showed up at the studio with three of my friends on a weekday. I’ve always been a laid-back guy, and I think my friends were more excited than I was.

An earthquake could happen or a guy rob a store and I’d have little emotion.

Both of those are true stories. Just ask my wife.

As the person asking the questions, an assistant on the show had called me and helped me to come up with questions to ask the three contestants.

So I was calm backstage. I just had to read my questions off index cards.

I could look at my mom’s house to find the VHS tape to see the questions and answers from the girls, but this story is about finding love with another girl.

I’ll just say the strangest thing — and many high school friends have told me this — happened when the girl I picked walked around the corner to see me.

We gave each other the obligatory smile and then hug … and we laughed.

There wasn’t any immediate attraction, but there was instant recognition. We both went to the same high school and one of my friends was her prom date.

She was cute and one of the popular girls in high school. I was a basketball player on the student newspaper who didn't give a rip about being popular.

I didn't see this working out.

The actual date

I got a call one day from The Dating Game telling me the three-day trip to Lake Tahoe Skiing Resort had to be taken in a six-month time frame, and my date was unable to go because she was working out of the country as a model.

“You can bring anybody you want on your date,” the assistant told me.

Of course, there would be a chaperone to go with us on the weekend date.

So I thought about it, and since it would be too crazy to ask a woman on a three-day skiing first date, I decided to ask my best friend from high school.

Frank said “yes,” and, technically, I guess that means we went on a date.

We took a 45-minute flight from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe on a February weekend for three days of blissful skiing and free lodging and meals.

Meeting a girl was the last thing on my mind. But I met a girl named Laura.

Lake Tahoe Nevada

Before I mention Laura— I know that’s bad writing to bury Laura three minutes into the story — let me tell you about our lodgings and the food.

The lodging was a cozy cabin with an upstairs loft where my buddy and I slept on the bunk beds, and our chaperone took the bedroom on the first floor.

The living room was homey and, most importantly, our chaperone was cool. He was a Ladies Man-type in his 40s who played a role in me finding love.

And a personal note: he was a chaperone who allowed things to happen.

First, let me tell you about the food. We were at a nice restaurant, and I asked our chaperone, “Can we order whatever we want on the menu?”

He said to “Go for it” on our first meal, but then we had to stay on a budget.

So my friend and I both ordered lobster, and it was a delicious meal. The skiing was great too… and that’s where I (sort of) ended up meeting Laura.

Actually, it was in the ski lodge where she was sitting next to our chaperone.

The girl

He was in his 40s and she was in her 20s. She was in college, three years older than me, and I assume he did some other work than just being a chaperone.

But, even as it was clear they were going to be a weekend item, I could sense there was an attraction between us from the way she looked into my eyes.

She had dark brown eyes behind her glasses — and because the chaperone had made first contact — I didn’t feel any nervousness to impress her as we talked.

Even though she was about the same age as me, she felt a bit older than me.

We talked for about 20 minutes. She introduced us to her younger brother to my friend and me, and we became buddies since we were college freshmen.

Later, the girl and the chaperone spent time together alone at the restaurant and elsewhere which allowed us to have a memorable night with her brother.

Let’s just when she and the chaperone came in we were having a good time, laughing and giggling over the silliest things from what her brother brought.

They went off to the bedroom and left us to continue our little party. I could sense Laura liked the guy, but at the same time, it felt like she would be a better fit hanging out and having fun with her brother, Frank, and … me.

She probably sensed their relationship was a short-term one, and I could feel a connection whenever she’d talk with me in the next few days at the resort.

They were brief conversations, but I could still feel there was something there.

The love connection

It never really occurred to me that we might hook up — later — since she was with the chaperone the entire weekend — and this, again, was a good thing.

Whenever we talked, I could just relax and talk to her like a friend. I wasn’t trying to impress her, and in our few conversations, we seemed to hit it off.

I didn’t even think about the fact she went to a college — UCLA —that was just about 15 miles down the freeway from my college — Cal State Northridge.

My friend and I were having a good time skiing or with her brother back at the cabin— to think too much about the possibility of any future relationship.

But the last time I saw her she gave me a piece of paper with her name and phone number — that’s how we did it back in the 80s — and told me to call.

Love after the Dating Game

One thing I had going for me compared to the chaperone is he probably didn’t take his time really getting to know her while I had this advantage on my side.

Plus, the intrigue likely wore off from their fling and he was 20 years older.

So, a few weeks later, we went on a date at the UCLA bowling alley. Then another date. And another date. She even came to my intramural basketball games, and whenever I looked over at her, I could see her looking at me.

We started dating, and I thought we’d made a love connection. But after a month, she told me moved into a sorority and our dates began to dwindle.

We still had some very memorable moments — without going into details — but I could sense she was getting swept up into the sorority scene, living in a home with about 15 to 20 girls and going to fraternity parties with her sisters.

I stopped calling her after she didn’t return one of my calls. When she finally called me back a week later, she told me she had gone away for the weekend with two Sorority sisters and three guys from a fraternity.

That told me all I needed. I stopped calling her, even though I liked her.

I didn’t return calls, either. I was hurt and knew it wouldn’t work. She left me answering machine messages and called a friend to relay a message to me.

She said she was sorry and wanted me to call her.

But I stuck to my resolve that it wouldn’t work. She had chosen the sorority life and meeting guys at fraternity parties — and I didn’t want a part of that.

It was a recipe for getting hurt and I let her go, even though I liked her a lot.

We had a lot of chemistry together in the month and a half we had dated, and the lesson here is sometimes the guy you let go might have really liked you.

Thanks for reading my story.

Shout out to Susie Pinon. Her story, “I Have Been Publishing My First Draft of Articles for Month,” encouraged me to write this in … mostly… one draft.

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