Early on I discovered that women get tired of the same old same old, at least if they have something remotely resembling an imagination.
That's when I started to think outside of the box. I started coming up with all sorts of different things to do.
When I lived in Kodiak tourist women wanted to see eagles and bears. If they interested me I'd offer to to take them eagle spotting in my old Dodge pickup. A number of them took me up on the offer.
I'd take them straight to the Kodiak dump, get out and find something like a nasty old fish or something and put it on the hood. As often as not of times an eagle would land on the hood, scoop up the fish and leave, not five feet from us sitting in the cab. We always spotted an eagle or three pretty close up if they didn't scoop up the treat I put on the hood.
I took a couple woman to a rifle range and showed her how to shoot. It cost me 4 or 5 boxes of .22LR. Big deal. Neither of these woman had never done that before. One of them really enjoyed herself, the other was mildly interested but not really into it.
They didn't all go smoothly but that's OK. One of my favorite impromptu dates was a budget cruise I took a woman on. Actually it was a picnic on a ferry. It turned into a hilarious fiasco because it was in late spring when a maintenance crew was on board chipping and repainting the ferry. My table was a board and a wooden fruit box and the seats were 2 five gallon pails containing the picnic lunch and we had to move a couple of times because the racket of needle guns (paint scalers) was annoying.
I think the third time we moved when we reseated I casually and suavely said, "Ahh, yes. Where were we?" like nothing had happened.
She replied that this was the most whacked out date she had ever been on. I replied, "Yeah, but you're not bored." which sent her into total laughter.
"That I'm not," she replied. "What's going to happen next?"
"I don't have a clue but I'm sure we'll find out," I replied. Just then some drunk wandered by and we both laughed like hell.
Later she told me it was the most entertaining time she had ever had.
Of course, I didn't bat 1.000, generally about 75% which ain't bad. One woman in Kodiak was totally appalled at being taken to the dump to watch eagles. I suppose she had some vision of being taken to some mountaintop and watching 287 eagles flying 10 feet above us.
Still, you have to remember that a date works both ways. You are not only scoping her out but she is doing the same thing. The woman that was upset over being taken to the dump to see eagles I was probably glad to get rid of early on. Partly because she had no sense of humor and mainly because she wanted to see wildlife on her terms. She likely didn't understand the concept that you go to where the wildlife was, not the other way around. What she wanted was unrealistic.
One trick I used was when I sailed my sailboat from Kodiak to Friday Harbor. Nah. Let's skip that one. Let's just say that cruising a sailboat was interesting.
Still, the advice that I give to a young man dating is not to follow the same old dopey dating ritual (whatever that is these days) and try something different and make yourself interesting.
Take the road less traveled.
In this day and age I do believe if I was, say, under 40 I would ask a woman out to go with me to an 0145 breakfast at a Waffle House next to a strip joint. Hell, if I was single now at 74 I would be tempted.
At least it would be interesting.
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