"Something So Strong" on a date

It’s funny how hearing a song can take you back to a moment in your life when you heard that song. All the feelings, sights and sounds come right back like it happened yesterday.

“Something so Strong” by Crowded House is such a song for me

One last summer date

It was a strange time. Grade 12 had just ended and I was kind of in a holding pattern until it was time to head off to university in Edmonton.

My luck with women had changed marginally by then. After some humming and hawing, I had gone on a few dates with a girl named Gina.

By the end of school, we had gone on two dates and she had been my escort to grad.

I’d seen an ad  in the Lethbridge Herald, or maybe on TV, for a play going on at the University of Lethbridge. I was still working at the greenhouse. I recall phoning the university box office to get the time – and price. Then I called Gina and she was in.

The whole experience with her had been weird to say the least. When I first met her, she was outgoing, kind of loud, and boisterous. I used to see her before she started social studies class with my old teacher Mr. Vuch. She kind of flirted with me and even made me a “pumpkin” out of a piece of loose-leaf paper. I also told her about this play I wrote, and she said she wanted to read it.

Well, that was my entrée. I left a note for her in it – a poem actually. It was just in time for her to go off on a band trip. I did not expect a response for days. But the next day, a mutual friend said Gina had left a note for me. It was a response with a poem of her own. It was the go ahead to go out.

When she got back, I went to Coaldale where I called her from my best friend Chris Vining’s room.

She would go out – likely her first date too. When she asked what we should do, I said, “The world is our oyster.” Vining rolled his eyes. I suggested a movie and would pick her up. She gave me her address and I repeated it for Vining to write down.

When Saturday came, I got dressed in my best, got the car ready and drove to Coaldale. I pulled up in front of Gina’s house and an old man answered. I said I was there to see Gina. He had no idea who I was talking about. I cursed out Vining – only to return to the car to discover I had read the address wrong.

Her house was actually across the street, right across from the water tower.

She answered the door and told me I had to meet her parents. That was okay with me. Her dad told me I could do whatever I wanted with her because she was crazier than he was. Her sister Lori, who I had taken Accounting 10-20 with when I was in Grade 10, was going out the back door with another guy.

“One out the front, one out the back,” her mom said.

So I escorted Gina to the car, opened the door for her, and closed it behind her. I got in, and suggested we go to a movie. That was fine, she said, but she did not say much more.

I stopped at Mac’s for a newspaper, and we agreed on, “The Secret of My Success”. In an effort to try to b funny, I crumpled up the newspaper and tossed it in the back seat. That came back to haunt me, because I forgot which theatre the movie was in.

The most striking thing was that the outgoing, kind-of-loud, and boisterous Gina just stopped talking. She said nothing. All through the movie and after.

The same thing repeated the next week.

Grad followed and then it was summer.

This play at the University of Lethbridge would be my last date with Gina.

I recall finishing up at the greenhouse and driving through Coaldale wondering what the night would bring. I went home, bathed and changed. I still remember the shirt I put on – it had white and pink vertical stripes, and was one of my favourites.

I picked up Gina and again a dearth of conversation followed. I still remember what she wore – long white blouse, leggings under a skirt and granny boots.

I had no idea how to get to the university. Gina had been to a drama camp there so she kind of knew. I caught the turn late and sped like a race car driver around the clover leaf to West Lethbridge.

The song playing on the radio was “Something so Strong” by Crowded House, and I belted it out as the G-force kicked in. I was trying to impress Gina any way I could – or at least get her to talk. I think she was just kind of scared.

After that, things were pretty uneventful.

The show was “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie, and it was a two-person show. The performances were riveting and Gina even said so.

After the first act ended, she got up to leave. I told her there was still another act. She said the show looked done, and it did seem to wrap up. But there was another act, and it was even better.

That was something we both agreed on.

And that was the end of the Saga of Gina. I don’t think I ever saw her again after that.

Parting thoughts

Looking back, I think we were both just nervous and inexperienced about dating. And quite frankly, really not made for each other. It still amazes me though, 30 years later, how a person could be so different in private and public. But that is how teenagers can act.

It is funny how songs can be associated with events in life.

I heard “Something So Strong” just the other day, and it took me back to the drive in West Lethbridge the summer of 1987 that took me at break-neck speed around a clover leaf.

And it reminded me of the minefield of teenage dating and how lucky I am to be through it.

*From the vault