I was in the military and was visiting the Smithsonian with my aunt. She had brought the daughter of a friend and we started talking. She found out I was being sent to Turkey (look up Sinop, it is an interesting place and our mission was just as interesting). Anyway she said it would be fun to be pen pals with someone in the military stationed overseas. We wrote and over the year our letters got more and more detailed. Luckily, my next station (N. Virginia) was near her home (N. Maryland) so we took it to the next level and started dating. There was a difference in our ages and where we were in life so it didn't last but I still remember it vividly.

I went to a haunted house LOL

Like most things in my life things just happen, I never made a date with a girl or women until I was in my forties on the rebound from a 16 year relationship. That date was with a Finnish lady from central BC and we met up in Calgary went shopping to the zoo and out for supper.

A street festival and then The Simpsons Movie/Die Hard 4 at the Drive In.

I had a girlfriend in 2004-05, but we never really went out on a date. If we went out to eat or to the movies her friends would tag along. If her friend didn't tag along my first date would have been Napoleon Dynamite.

My very first date was to the company christmas ball that was the social highlight of the year for the company with which I had my Cadetship, my first real paid employment job.

Olive Garden, cuz I keep it classy.

It is very different for gay men. Dating was not acceptable. You didn't bring people home to meet your parents. My first experiences were just sex. It was only later on that I was comfortable bringing people around to meet the family and to actually date them. It is difficult to find people sometimes who are comfortable with that now, even in 2017. Some heterosexuals think that the world is open to gay relationships. My world is and I insist upon it, but many people are not accepting of gay couples behavior just like straight couples in public. There are many gay people who are not comfortable with showing affection in public. I find that sad.

In one of my other lifetimes ... it was Junior High. We were both 12 - and totally innocent in all ways. We went to a Symphony concert, as his family was big into Classical - Beethoven's 9th symphony. His Father was our chaperone. I loved it !

PS - Ultimately, we "went steady", got engaged, and married way too young, at 19 ! Though we're not married anymore, we have remained good friends through varying relationships, and all the years - I think of him as a brother.

Lordy.....26 years ago was a long time! We went to the movies, Memphis Belle.

Back in high school. We went to the Family Fun Center, this place that had an arcade, mini golf, and such. I think I was 13 or 14? Shh, don't tell my mom, lol.

Movie in sixth grade we held hands and did what we thought was making out.