A hilarious field report from Ironsides, about his dad meeting his mom,
According to my mother, my dad’s entire conversation during most of their first date consisted of one word: “Hello.”
They did go out to eat, while she chattered away and he remained absolutely silent, after which he drove her back to her parents’ house. He didn’t open the car door for her.
This apparently intrigued her enough so that she thought ‘I’m not getting out of this car until he asks me out again.’ They sat there silently for several minutes until my dad said, “Let’s go out next week.” That completed his entire verbal effort for the evening.
Considering that they’re still married a number of decades later, the strong, silent approach apparently worked.
Postscript: they actually DIDN’T go out the next week. My dad’s uncle, who he hadn’t seen since before he joined the Army, came to the state and stayed for two weeks. Since he was about the only close-ish relative my dad liked, they spent the time chewing the fat, going out shooting, etc., and my dad didn’t call my mother back at all until his uncle left. She says by the time he did call up, she was in an absolute frenzy to hear from him.
I don’t even think this was particularly deliberate on his part, just the way his personality was at that point; I’ll have to ask him.
One part dread, one part jerkboy, one part challenge, one part scarcity (aka abundance mentality). And all of it subcommunicated with an economy of words. Ironsides’ dad followed the CH Poon Commandments before they were written down for the masses.
One thing you’ll notice if you date a lot of women is that while women are chattier than men on average, some women are chattier than other women. For the loquacious ladies, letting them blab while you laconically punctuate their verbosity with occasional pithy insights or sexy innuendo is just the balance that those women need. (Don’t try to out-gab a gabby woman, because she’ll never let you and she’ll get annoyed, draining the sexual tension from the date.) For less garrulous gals, you’ll want to speak more, to rev up the conversation before it stales out.
[crypto-donation-box]
