Men Belong on the STREET side

Chrissie had asked the question about if there is a proper side that a man is supposed to stand on when walking with his woman down the street. All the guys that had a clue knew that the guy walks on the street side. This mannerism started probably hundreds of years ago to keep a woman's dress from getting soiled by passing carriages and eventually cars driving by. My mother had told me about this when I was in my teens. I remember a few times consciously getting on the correct side when I was younger, but I guess it eventually became a perfectly natural thing to do. I didn't really think about it that much.

The discussion reminded me of a woman I used to date.

Tammy and I met through an on-line personals site (no, it wasn't Adult Friend Finders). She seemed very sweet from the conversations we had. It always started out through e-mail, then eventually phone calls. There was one problem, she lived a 5 hour drive away. She was in Colorado... barely. She owned a shop in a small tourist town in southern Colorado.

She had mentioned that she was thinking about moving to Colorado Springs or Denver to see if her shop could do better. I told her about some great places a shop like hers could do very well
here in the Colorado Springs area. She was going to be coming through "The Springs" on her way to a show in Denver and asked me out. I thought that was very cool that she just came out and asked me for a date. A few weeks before we met she explained to me that she was born with a deformed arm. My immediate reaction was a slight cringe, but I really liked everything about her, I wanted to meet her. She decided that she would get a hotel room here in town.

We met at a nice restaurant for dinner downtown. She was even more beautiful that her pictures. The arm took a little getting used to. We decided to go to a little club nearby to see if a decent band was playing. Nobody that was any good. I asked if she just wanted to sit and have a drink at a fairly quiet bar (which happens to be the one my brother manages).

In walking her to the bar I started on her left side because it was the side closest to the street. She told me I needed to switch sides. I looked at her like "what are you talking about?". Well that was the side with her short arm and she wanted to hold my arm while walking. I was totally embarrassed.

I was so used to standing on the street side that I kept having to do this dance around her to get on the correct side for her to hold my arm. It became a big joke between us.

It really amazed me how growing up this way totally made it not any kind of a handicap. Here business was a little craft store that sold nothing but bear knick knacks (Teddy Bears, bear signs for the walls, lamps, carvings, etc). The most amazing thing about it all was her Teddy Bears. She made them all, by hand. Yes, I said it, by hand. We dated for about a month. During that time I spent the weekend with her and saw her make one of her bears. I was amazed just watching her.

She is a really great lady, but unfortunately we didn't continue on with our relatinship.