One "Blind Date" Lead This Confirmed Bachelor Up the Wedding Aisle

Though I have no way of knowing for sure, I strongly suspect that most people who meet on blind dates don't end up married to each other for 32 years. However it does happen. Case in point is Yours Truly.

I met my wife-to-be, Pat March, in the spring of 1972 when I was working as a staff writer for a daily newspaper in the Chicago suburbs called The Arlington Heights Herald. At the time, I was 30 years old and a confirmed (well, apparently only nearly confirmed) bachelor, with no overwhelming desire that I can remember to settle down in married bliss.

In fact, I was rather happy with things just the way they were. I was foot-loose and fancy-free with the ability to come and go exactly as I pleased.
At that time, not even the statistics supported the fact that I would ever settle down and marry. I stand corrected (I always stand corrected), but as I recall the chances of a guy getting married once he surpassed the magic milestone of age 30 were like one in 50 or one in 100. Whatever the statistics, it was considered by many to be the point of no return.

Nonetheless, never say die because the world is full of matchmakers and it seems my colleagues at The Arlington Heights Herald were among them because it was they who arranged this blind date. You see, at the time Pat, a native Chicagoan, worked as a writer (and a good one, I might add) for an opposing newspaper.
After the matchmakers impressed upon me how much Pat and I had in common (which was true) and what a fun gal she was (which she was), and what a natural match we would be (which, as it turned out we were, for the most part), I finally agreed to the blind date, for no other reason than to get my colleagues off my back.

It was the early evening of a spring day when I arrived at Pat March's apartment door in Oak Park, Illinois. I knocked on the door and it opened. I looked straight ahead and didn't see anybody. I looked down and was greeted by a red-headed 5-year-old named Rob. Behind him was his older brother of a couple years named Chris. They both looked me up and down and then Rob inquired as to whether I wanted to see his mom.