My story involves Mounties and canoes - if it had hockey, it would be a trifecta. I went to college in the Maritimes and a good friend's boyfriend introduced me to a friend of his, a fellow who had been accepted by the Mounties and was waiting to start his 6-month training. My first serious, i.e., more than a few dates, boyfriend. Well, when he went off to Saskatchewan (middle of the Canadian Prairies) to start his training, that was the end of my big first romance. Back home in Ontario after first year, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. My best girlfriend had had enough and said I'm just going to take you to parties until you get over this ... and so it started. Parties at 8, followed by parties at 11: quite the summer. One day she brought me to a bridge party (I'd never played) and a guy walked up the steps wearing shorts. I know, I'm shallow: that's what I focused on (moog - decent legs). He was building above ground swimming pools, lifting a lot of steel and so on and so forth. He had also just finished first year. Well, he remembered me from a high school debating tournament the year before, I didn't remember him but I got to know him as he attended every bridge game that summer (even coming to my house the day after his wisdom teeth were removed - true devotion). At the end of the summer, the bridge group decided to go on a canoe trip - we paddled to the island, we set up our tent (still moog) and realised we were missing that all important ingredient: beer. We volunteered to do the moonlit beer canoe run and the rest is history: 28 years this spring. Since Canada is a 2 degrees of separation country, let me just say that he's a lot more than shorts, and leave it at that. I don't want a Tracy dh situation on my hands!
And the one that got away: he came to visit me that fall at university, very buff after Mountie training but by then it was too late. My dh is nothing if not persistent and it was all over for me. Janet