Donna and Dan - 24

Donna Dan
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Continuing my 25 week countdown to the anniversary of Dan and Donna...

After meeting Donna at the BSU retreat, I was infatuated. I found out her first name at the retreat, as well as which dorm she was in. I believe I probably stopped in at the BSU a time or two after that at random times to see if I could catch her, but without much luck.

Other than stalking the BSU, I had no way to contact this Cinderella. No internets to search, no facebook contact or cell phone, nothing.

Fate intervened. Or perhaps college.

I saw a note one day on the bulletin board at my dorm.

"Adopt a Little Sister!"

Apparently, Murray State University was in the matchmaking business. They had an "Adopt a Little Sister/Big Brother" (not to be confused with the actual charitable organization...) program to give guys from the men's dorm a way of meeting ladies from the women's dorms. Sweet! It gave me a chance.

I looked up her dorm name and went down the list of names.

"Donna Helton. Freshman. From Arlington, KY."

That had to be her, I hoped against hope.

I signed up and requested "Donna Helton. Freshman. From Arlington, KY." as my little sister.

This gave me access to her phone number and a chance to see if my detective work had paid off.

Now all I had to do was work up the nerve to call her (no mean feat for this shy 18 year old boy).

"Hello? Is this Donna Helton?"

"Yes..."

"Hi, my name is Dan Trabue. I THINK we may have met the other night at the BSU retreat... Was that you? I was the guy who made witty banter about the size of your high school..."

Or words to that effect.

It WAS her and she was open to talking to me (that is, she didn't hang up on me rudely).

We met some more and talked some more. I walked her to her class and danced home to my dorm, got some change and went to play Pac-Man until she got out of class, when I'd try to find her "accidentally" and walk her to her next class and begin the cycle again.

Eventually, I asked her out for a date. Or so I thought.

There is some debate on this point, but the first TWO movies we saw were Disney's Lady and the Tramp and the new horror/slasher flick, Halloween (this would be about Halloween time, 1981). Now, my memory says that we saw Lady and the Tramp first and that was our first date. Donna, however, thinks our first trip to the movies was just two friends going to a movie and not an actual date, which did not come until the second movie. Also, we aren't sure which movie was first.

Nonetheless, we were hitting it off and, after walking her home through the cool, dark night after that second movie - holding hands! - and upon reaching her dorm front door, we shyly said our goodbyes and shared a kiss.

Our first, sweet, sweet kiss.

Ahhh, young love...