A year and a half without.
I met her while me and a buddy, Jim, were on our way back from a local bar near post. I was in the passenger seat of the truck and they pulled up next to us on my side. Jim saw the driver and instantly called the driver for himself. This is a childish thing all guys do when they are on the prowl together. Usually we trade back and forth for the more attractive woman. So this makes me the wingman on a woman in the passenger seat that I can't even see. I agree to this proposition because, lately, Jim and I have been hanging out a lot and he is the only one of us who has a vehicle. Given the loss of the choice women or hanging out in my room, I'll go be a wingman all day long. The driver flags us down and signals that she is going to pull over just ahead. This is a new concept to a guy like me who just recently learned that you have to be overly aggressive to meet women when you are stationed at an Army base with 25,000 other men. In my mind this can't be a good situation. Either these girls are too young for us to be talking with, or the driver is trying to hook up her skank friends with some horny army guys. Thankfully, I was wrong on both counts. We pull over behind them and Jim and I are out of the truck in a milli-second. The doors to the car open and they both get out in unison. (insert slow motion camera aka slow walk scene here) As soon as I saw Shannon get out of the passenger seat I muttered to Jim "Dude remember that you called dibbs on the driver. I'm not switching now." She was about five' six" with wavy blonde hair and stellar green eyes. She was beautiful. We hit it off right away. She was a nursing student at the local college and dreamed of becoming a doctor one day. Shannon had the same dry sense of humor as I. She was a realist like me. We liked the same music. The music thing was something I found refreshing because, given our proximity to Nashville, most of the locals lived for country which was something I just tolerated. We hung out in the parking lot for a while talking and getting to know each other. Soon the driver (I can't even remember her name) was calling time to go. I was stoked when Shannon actually exchanged numbers with me (me giving her the number to the barracks pay phone in the hall) and she agreed that we should go out next week. Jim and the driver didn't make a love connection.
A week later, on Saturday night, I was bribing friends for the use of their cars. I think the offer that I finally landed was sixty bucks and a full tank of gas when I returned Chris' car. Trying to borrow a car on Saturday night in the army is like trying to find an ice cube in the desert. I hadn't even left the barracks and the date already cost me sixty bucks. It was worth every penny. We had a great time. It was the typical dinner and a movie thing. I remember we saw a movie that I had never heard of "Forest Gump." It was killer. I drove her back to the dorm and we made out but that was as far as it went. I was satisfied, after all, I had plenty of "encounters" while enlisted but no relationships to speak of. I was willing to put the effort into this one. The damn car thing was going to be a problem though.
Shannon and I continued dating for a month or so. She had a car so she would, more often than not, come pick me up. We had good times and eventually she snuck me into her dorm through the first floor window to watch a movie in her room. I remember it was "Dances With Wolves" which I had never seen and still hadn't seen after I left her room in the wee hours of the morning. I was on cloud nine until a week or so later when I got the call. All I remember about the conversation was something like this. "I really like you Glenn and I still want to date you but I'm not coming to pick you up at the post anymore. It's too hard to get past the M.P.s who pull me over and check my car every time I come and make me get a new base pass." I agreed that she shouldn't have to come get me every time and I vowed to be the driver on our dates from that point on.
The next day, after a year and a half without, I walked down to the "lemon lot" (where all the army guys park their cars they want to sell) and bought a Toyota Corrola for $1800 cash. It was a sweet little car, steel grey with a moon roof , nice aluminum wheels, good tires, and little pop up headlights like a corvette. There were only two things wrong with it. No radio and the muffler was shot. Ironically I already bought a stereo when they were on sale at the Post Exchange. (That stereo was the best I ever had. I installed it in that Toyota and my next three cars. My roommate thought it was hilarious that I had a CD changer and a deck but no car to put in.) So all the car needed was muffler which saved me four hundred dollars off the asking price and cost me forty dollars to replace. When I bought the car, it had 90000 miles ont it. I quickly made up for lost times during the six months I owned it. When I traded it for $2000 it had close to 140,000 miles on it. Shannon and I dated for about a month longer. She broke it off when she started her internship in Atlanta. I did see her for one more fantastic weekend when she called me at 10 PM on a Friday and asked if I would join her. Four hours later I was in Atlanta. Man I loved her and that little car.
A week later, on Saturday night, I was bribing friends for the use of their cars. I think the offer that I finally landed was sixty bucks and a full tank of gas when I returned Chris' car. Trying to borrow a car on Saturday night in the army is like trying to find an ice cube in the desert. I hadn't even left the barracks and the date already cost me sixty bucks. It was worth every penny. We had a great time. It was the typical dinner and a movie thing. I remember we saw a movie that I had never heard of "Forest Gump." It was killer. I drove her back to the dorm and we made out but that was as far as it went. I was satisfied, after all, I had plenty of "encounters" while enlisted but no relationships to speak of. I was willing to put the effort into this one. The damn car thing was going to be a problem though.
Shannon and I continued dating for a month or so. She had a car so she would, more often than not, come pick me up. We had good times and eventually she snuck me into her dorm through the first floor window to watch a movie in her room. I remember it was "Dances With Wolves" which I had never seen and still hadn't seen after I left her room in the wee hours of the morning. I was on cloud nine until a week or so later when I got the call. All I remember about the conversation was something like this. "I really like you Glenn and I still want to date you but I'm not coming to pick you up at the post anymore. It's too hard to get past the M.P.s who pull me over and check my car every time I come and make me get a new base pass." I agreed that she shouldn't have to come get me every time and I vowed to be the driver on our dates from that point on.
The next day, after a year and a half without, I walked down to the "lemon lot" (where all the army guys park their cars they want to sell) and bought a Toyota Corrola for $1800 cash. It was a sweet little car, steel grey with a moon roof , nice aluminum wheels, good tires, and little pop up headlights like a corvette. There were only two things wrong with it. No radio and the muffler was shot. Ironically I already bought a stereo when they were on sale at the Post Exchange. (That stereo was the best I ever had. I installed it in that Toyota and my next three cars. My roommate thought it was hilarious that I had a CD changer and a deck but no car to put in.) So all the car needed was muffler which saved me four hundred dollars off the asking price and cost me forty dollars to replace. When I bought the car, it had 90000 miles ont it. I quickly made up for lost times during the six months I owned it. When I traded it for $2000 it had close to 140,000 miles on it. Shannon and I dated for about a month longer. She broke it off when she started her internship in Atlanta. I did see her for one more fantastic weekend when she called me at 10 PM on a Friday and asked if I would join her. Four hours later I was in Atlanta. Man I loved her and that little car.
posted by Glenn at 6:24 PM
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