Some memories fade, and some are written down in ink. The creator behind @shirleygirl_joy pulled out the diary she kept as a teenager and took her followers back to February 1969 and her first official date. She tells the story with plenty of laughs, a few embarrassed groans and a very clear memory of what it felt like to be nervous in a brand new dress.
Her caption sums it up: some memories really do last forever. And she still has the diary to prove it.
The New Dress And The Warning For Dad
The story begins at home. She told her mom and dad about the date, and her mom answered the way many moms do: let’s go buy you a new dress. So they did, and as she puts it, she was set. She was ready.
Then came the part every teenager of the era will recognize. She asked her father not to ask the boy any questions. Dad had his own plan. He told her he was going to ask to see a driver’s license. She was horrified and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was not going to do that.
When the big night came, she was too nervous to sit still. She climbed up on a footstool and then stood on the kitchen counter, looking out the window toward the corner where she could see a car turn. She knew she would recognize his truck. When she spotted it coming around the corner with its old headlights, she hollered to her parents that he was coming, hopped down, and her mom and dad said they were ready too.
The young man, Dennis, came to the door and picked her up. And, as she says with obvious relief, her parents were nice and did not say anything weird.
A Movie She Cannot Remember
The couple headed to a movie theater in San Jose. She remembers the Century 21 theater, but she admits she has no real idea what the movie was about. She was far too nervous to follow the plot.
Dennis asked if she would like something from the concession stand. She said no, because she was afraid she might get something stuck in her teeth, though she did not say that out loud. How about a drink, then? Also no, since she worried she would need the restroom. So the two of them sat down with nothing to eat or drink.
Then he held her hand, which she remembers as sweet. It was also, she admits, mortifying. Her hands were clammy and sweaty. Meanwhile her mind was racing with tiny questions. How should she sit? Should she cross her legs? Should she sit up straight? As she tells it, the whole movie was a blur.
Chattering Teeth In February
After the movie they walked out to his truck, which she describes as an older vehicle. It was February and it was freezing, and she was wearing that new dress. Between the cold and the nerves she could not make her teeth stop. They chattered so hard she could hear them knocking together whenever she tried to talk.
They tried to have a conversation anyway, and she remembers thinking she could hardly speak because her teeth were so loud. It is the kind of detail that makes the story feel real. Anyone who has ever been young and nervous around someone they liked can picture it.
From there they drove to an old town area for ice cream. By then, she says, she had calmed down enough to enjoy it. She looked back through her diary for the story and found her own words from that night, which she reads aloud. After the movie they went to Old Town, and then to a pancake house where she had hot chocolate, and her teenage self added the words “thank goodness.” After a freezing ride, a hot drink was exactly what she needed.
The Ending
She wraps up with a smile. That night, she says, he kissed her for the very first time. The two did not stay together after they went off to college and each went their own way, but she remembers it as a lot of fun for a number of months and says they had a great time together. She signs off with her usual closing: find your joy.
What stands out is how kindly she tells it. There is no bitterness about the breakup and no bragging about the romance. It is just a woman looking back on being young, scared and happy, with a diary entry as proof.
Why First Date Stories Hit So Hard
A first date is one of those events almost everyone remembers in tiny detail, even after fifty years. The dress, the car, the words you said and did not say. Her story works because it is full of small, true things: standing on a kitchen counter to watch the road, turning down a snack for fear of something stuck in her teeth, and teeth that would not behave. Those details are why comments sections under stories like this fill up with people sharing their own first dates.
It also shows how different dating was in the late 1960s. A boy came to the door and met the parents. A father might make a show of asking about a license. A date often meant a movie, then ice cream or a bite to eat, and then straight home. There were no texts to calm nerves, and no way to check in with a friend on the way. You faced the evening on your own.
Turn Your Own Memories Into A Story
If her story makes you want to write your own, here are a few easy ways to start.
- Start with one small detail. A dress, a song on the radio, the color of a car. Details pull the rest of the memory along.
- Write it the way you would tell it. Short sentences and a bit of humor are fine. She laughs at herself, and that is what makes the story charming.
- Include the nerves. The embarrassing parts are often the best parts.
- Add the people. Parents, friends and the date. A line about how your father reacted tells readers a lot about the time.
- Read it aloud or record it. Grandchildren love hearing a story in your own voice.
Protecting An Old Diary
If you have a diary like hers, it is worth looking after. The Library of Congress offers guidance on caring for paper items that applies neatly to journals and letters. Its advice is to keep paper in a cool, clean, relatively dry place and to avoid attics and basements. Keep items away from radiators and vents, and limit exposure to strong light. It recommends acid-free and lignin-free folders and boxes, and it warns against rubber bands, self-adhesive tape and glue, which can damage paper over time.
A few more practical steps can help:
- Handle pages with clean, dry hands, and keep food and drink away from the table.
- Do not tape torn pages. If something is fragile, a conservator can advise you.
- Make a copy or take photos of the pages so the family can read them without handling the original.
- Write a short note on the inside cover saying whose diary it is and the years it covers.
A Reminder To Keep Telling Them
The best part of her post is the invitation in it. She tells the story as if she is talking to a friend across the table, and she ends with a simple wish for others to find their own joy. It is easy to assume nobody wants to hear about a date from 1969, but plenty of people do. Younger relatives get a window into how life worked then, and people her age get to remember their own nervous evenings.
So dig out the diary, the photo album or the shoebox of letters. Tell the story of your first date, nerves and all. Somebody is waiting to hear it.
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