Time Machine

Her Scottish skin was like porcelain and her hair was shiny black. At first there were drive-in movies with the convertible top up. Then there was costuming and face painting of her little brother one Halloween evening. She and I exchanged gifts at Christmas and she gave me a black polyester shirt with twisted paisley teardrops and a butterfly collar. There was a May storm with snow so deep that I had trouble driving the MGB, due to high centering. I remember fondue dinners and double dates. We ate dinners at my parents and I met her parents too. Our friends began hinting at engagement.

Of course we went to house parties and discos too. Saturday night fever infected most of us in the mid 1970s. Elevator shoes and bell bottom pants were de rigueur. The Bee Gees songs were super hits. I preferred Calgary Folk Club music; wore penny loafers, GWG jeans and alpaca sweaters.

At one of the house parties, there was a huge pile of platform shoes at the front door. When we left, I mocked the attention getting men who wore those disco boots. “How could you even drive in such things?”

I became a Yahoo that night: a smug young man judging a person’s value by heel height. I had become a filthy uncivilized creature who regularly poisoned his body with beer.

She married the man who wore those platform shoes. He was the host of the party and I was a Lilliputian.

C. B. Sikstrom

Posted on CBC web site “Worst Dates” March 6, 2010: http://www.cbc.ca/books/strangerthanfiction/yourstories/date/by-c-b-sikstrom-cold-lake-ab.html