Today Pastor Tim preached from Song of Solomon and showed the fabulous “Flame” NOOMA video from Rob Bell at Mars Hill Church. It also happened to be the anniversary of his very first date with Tara (I forget the number–13? Something like that). Tara sang, as a surprise, the song she sang at their wedding: “All of Me,” by Stryper. Tim was expecting a different song, but she secretly arranged this with the worship team and we played it live.

Tim talked about remembering the things you did when you were dating. He told about a typical date he and Tara have now (eat, movie, Starbucks–I think that’s the basic formula), and recalled what they did when they were dating.

So I got to thinking about what Pam and I enjoyed doing when we were dating. We often–at least once every two months–spent Saturday doing what to us was marvelous, but which would have been boring to most couples. We would drive to Fort Wayne and hit the various used bookstores. We started with the Book Rack on South Calhoun, near Rudisill (this store has since closed). Then we drove to a large used bookstore at Georgetown on the east end of town (this store later burned down). Then we hit the Book Rack on East State Street (it’s still there). And we ended at a bookstore near Glenbrook Mall located in a house (with used books in every nook and cranny; it closed some years ago).

That was our idea of a fun date. We would come home with gobs of novels, all bought at half-price. And a few weeks later, we would do it all again.

When Pam has continuing education CPA seminars in Indianapolis, I take the day off and accompany her. While she’s learning stuff, I kick around in computer, music, and bookstores. She had a seminar two weeks ago. When I picked her up at the end of the day, we headed straight to our favorite store: a huge used bookstore in the Castleton area. We both left with a bunch of books (Pam with a gob of Christian novels). So used bookstores remain high on our fun-time list.

We are, undoubtedly, the Fun Couple of the Year.