Wow - does this bring back a heck of a lot of memories!!
Oh it can't be that long ago Lorien
I'm 54. I've been married nearly 21 years. For 10 years before that I dated her mostly (7 steady and 3 where we dated others). But those dates (and the ones in college for the several years before our initial 7 year steady dating) don't count in terms of the memories to which I'm referring.
I'm talking about my first few dates especially - but also most of those that occurred during high school. I graduated high school in 1974 and I think my first "real" date was as a sophomore and though I'll never forget that one, what I really mean are the dates in junior and senior years when I had my own car and we had the freedom to pretty much do whatever suited our fancy (with a curfew that varied - hers typically being earlier than mine and defining our limits there).
One date was with an advanced member (black belt - can't remember dan) of my aiki-jutsu dojo and believe it or not, after dinner we went to a nearby park and sparred for about 3 hours where I taught her enough more advanced techniques (sort of stretching the rules where we weren't supposed to teach certain techniques until a certain level had been attained) that she won her next contest handily and even advanced in rank.
Since I don't want another warning concerning topics or statements inappropriate for younger viewers here (which is why a former reply to you in this general area was sent by PM after being deleted from the thread - and despite asking, I still don't know what I said that was in violation and suspect I never will as I never got a reply requesting an explanation - but it has expired though it remains in my profile and I don't know how long - for some specified period or forever - as that question too received no reply), I'll leave the rest to your imaginations - but I did have quite a bit of fun (and also had some bitter disappointments too).
But seriously, at least to me, that was a very long time ago.
I am glad I have got it 
