My First Date in Many Years

Dinner and music. I am so very excited!

A certain fellow was walking his dog the other evening past the business where I have a part-time job. Looking in the window, he saw me and stopped. Tying the dog to a lamp post, he came inside.

Walking up to him I told him that he was more than welcome to bring the dog inside.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, please bring the dog in.”

I had met this dog before. He was a delightfully friendly Irish setter. As soon as the dog came inside I got down on one knee and the dog and I fell into an amorous embrace. I had not hugged a dog in months. It felt so very good. I rubbed his ears and head and neck and talked to him then hugged him again. After a few minutes of doggie love I stood up and shook the man’s hand.

This fellow is a local businessman and community leader here in the little podunk backwater town in which I live. He is intensely devoted to supporting the arts and bringing some culture to a community that is hopelessly stuck in the mentality of the 1950s and which considers ‘art’ to be synonymous with ‘Norman Rockwell.’ He sits on the board of the local art guild as well as the little community theatre and he has written and published a book about local history. He is a well-educated intellectual and…