March 26, 1982

Twenty-five years ago today, I had my very first date with Leon. We still consider this date to be out main anniversary. We had met several months earlier, and had been talking to each other at the social hour after church every Sunday evening. We went to dinner (Fritz That's It in Evanston) and to the movie theater to see On Golden Pond. My main regret of the date was my choice of restaurant. Not that there was anything wrong with Fritz', but if I had known at the time how much Leon loves Italian food, I would have suggested Dave's Italian Kitchen, instead. Still, we remain together, so the restaurant choice couldn't have been all that bad.

Some time during the date, Leon mentioned that the next day was a Fen workday. I asked what this was, and managed to wheedle an invitation to accompany him. Leon thought that I was just trying to spend some more time with him (well, OK, there was an element of that), but I genuinely was interested. The next day I joined him and we headed out to my first visit to Bluff Spring Fen. It would be at least a year before he would figure out that I had a significant interest in the Fen independent of my interest in him. All these years later, it still amazes me that we had our first date and I "met" the Fen all within a 24 hour period. How could I have known at the time the degree to which that one day would affect my life for decades to come?