I was never good at dancing, which young women discovered quickly. Frequently I found myself sitting and watching while girls, unable to find a suitable partner, danced with one another. Since my bride doesn’t dance, this never bothered her. 

Not counting a few adventures Charley Moench and I had when we were young and single, I’ve never spent much time or found much pleasure in taverns. Exceptions to this were two beer halls in South St. Louis, where the “beer hall” served inexpensive meals, permitted dancing and had a band which encouraged audience participation. 

Lastly, I don’t enjoy going to movies. I spent three years while I was in college working as an usher in movie theaters. Most movies bore me. 

Notice this does not leave a lot to do when going out with some other young person, perhaps with an idea of a continuing relationship.

One thing to look for in a potential partner is someone you enjoy talking to. My bride and I talk a lot. We have driven for hundreds of miles, simply enjoying one another’s conversation. It is typically about anything – and everything: the landscape, plans for the day following driving, politics and other drivers. Be assured that it is always the other driver who is a “damned idiot,” never me. 

But we do more than talk, we enjoy other activities. Looking for interesting activities, I began taking night classes, for fun, in classes that interested me. At first, I did this for professional improvement, but it expanded into “fun” courses.

My first “fun” course was small motor repair. I was working with machinery at home, such as lawnmowers and chain saws, and had no idea as to how to care for them. I found, and took, a course in small motor repair. It was excellent and, as a consequence, I took and take better care of my equipment.  I also make small repairs that I would have had to pay for before.

I began a new direction when one of my students in a testing course, at the end of the course, said to me, “You’ve had your fun with me in this class, why don’t you take my class in sign language.” I did. I talked Sheila, not yet my bride, but close, into taking it with me (she became a much better signer than I.) Years later we found this course useful professionally when I took a position as director of a program for the disabled.

We also used it for fun. We could talk to each other in crowded places, such as at meetings or at a swimming pool, without having to be next to one another. I became more cautious in using it after an incident in a store. Standing behind a voluptuous and sparsely dressed girl in a line at a grocery, I signed to Sheila that the girl could use more clothing, but that I enjoyed the view. When the cashier began laughing, I realized I had best be careful what I signed and when. We weren’t the only ones who knew sign language.

Both being completely ignorant about automobiles we took beginning courses in auto mechanics together.  We enjoyed them.  Neither one of us can repair an automobile today, but we can tell the difference between a mechanic who knows how to repair a car and one who doesn’t, but is willing to charge for his ignorance and non-repair of your vehicle. 

When we began working for the military, we searched for something interesting to do and took Basic programming. An evening course, free to military and employees of the military, we began to learn something about individual computers when they were still in the developmental stages. Interested, and knowing that the military used computers a lot, I signed up for a course in Pascal at a local college. While I was never as good at it as people in class who planned to look for work in programming, I learned to read the language if not to program in it beyond the simplest stages. This was to help me later, although I didn’t anticipate it at the time. On nights I took that course, my bride enrolled in anatomy so that we could drive to and from the university together. She expected it to help her in art. While I took a course in matrix algebra, she took a class in watercolor and did quite well in it, as some of her paintings attest. I have taken numerous other courses. My last course was taken, again in programming, following retirement.  

Curiously enough, I was always a top student in those classes when I had only enrolled for fun and personal improvement – a distinct change from my undergraduate reputation.  I suppose that the difference was that I only wanted to enjoy myself and learn what the professor had to say. But I also met interesting people, some of whom I continue to have as friends.

So, my advice to the young, and to those who plan to continue living, if you are bored and aren’t in need of a degree, look around for short courses or evening college courses that might interest you. Finally, if you divide the cost of a course by the number of weeks you attend, you will find it much less expensive than spending the same number of evenings at the movies or in a cocktail lounge.