I mentioned this in my Who Is BassnMan post when I said I’d tell yall about it later and now I am. I know what your thinking, “NO WAY, BassnMan has lost his mind” but read on, I promise you all of what your about to read is true.
The year was 1997, Jeff Gordon won his first Daytona 500, Dion Hibdon won the Bassmaster Classic and we lost a very special lady when Princess Diana died in a car accident. That was the year my life would change forever. Yes, just like today I fished just about every weekend. Whether it was a tournament or pleasure fishing you could find me on the water somewhere. As a matter of fact, 1997 and 1998 were very profitable tournament seasons for me.
However, I was at a point in my life that I was growing tired of all the games I encountered during relationships. Yes, getting a date was never an issue but finding someone that could understand my passion for fishing or my ornery streak seemed like an impossibility and odds of finding someone that I was truly compatible with seemed like just a dream. I was happy where I was at in my life and I would rather be single and happy than in a commited relationship and unhappy. It was at that point that a friend told me about this new way of meeting women called on line dating so I decided to give it a try and see if I could find someone that I was actually compatible with.
It was about the middle of September 1997 that I signed up for a free trial membership at Matchmaker.com. As I filled out my profile I was honest about everything I wrote because I wanted any potential dates know exactly who I was and I hoped that everyone else was as honest as I was. Over the next 25 days I met quite a few different ladies that either I contacted or they contacted me through the web site. Some were great, some not so much so but none of which I really clicked with so I figured I’d just let my free subscription expire and not pay to continue my membership.
With 2 days left a lady contacted me and there was something about the way she wrote that caught my attention. She also made mention that she liked some of my ornery answers in my profile. I told her that my subscription was about to expire and that I would not be renewing my membership and gave her my email address if she wanted to contact me again.
As it turned out we continued to write each other and I found out something very interesting. Her name was Cindy BASS! Hmm, imagine that? What are the odds? Could this be the reason I felt attracter to her, she did have the right name. We continued to email each other for the next few weeks and the attraction continued to grow. Then we started talking on the phone and would spend hours on the phone. Oh, by the way, anyone that knows me knows how much I hate to be on the phone but our conversations never seemed that long and we both had something to say the whole time. To this point we had never seen each other, no pictures, nothing.
Finally in late November we figured it was about time we met in person. Seeing how we lived about 3 hours away from each other we figured we would meet half way. This was also a strategic decision on my part because I didn’t want her to know where I lived just in case I was not physically attracted to her. Yes, I know, that was VERY shallow if me. I was attracted to her personality so looks shouldn’t have mattered but hey, even the BassnMan is human. There has to be a physical attraction, right?
I arrived at the pre-determined destination, it was a Denny’s restaurant, first and waited. As I sat there a car pulled into the parking lot that matched the general description of her car. It parked and this rather large unattractive lady got out of the drivers side, my heart dropped. I thought about ducking down and driving away. You can imagine my relief when an equally unattractive man got out of the passenger side of the car.
Five minutes later another car pulled into the parking lot that matched the description of her car. Out of this car a very attractive lady hops out with a big smile on her face and I’m thinking, “No Way, that couldn’t be her!” Guess what? Yes, not only am I lucky when it comes to fishing but this time I was lucky in love as well. How’s that country song go, “You Had Me From Hello”
We celebrated our 10th year together last October and this May we will celebrate our official 5th year anniversary of marriage. Yes I waited quite awhile before popping the question. I can honestly say that the last 10 years my live have been the best 10 years of my life. My Cindy is all a man could ask for and more. We get along great and she supports me in everything I do. She is one Bass that I will not practice Catch And Release with. She’s a keeper!
That’s the story of my 130 pound bass. It brought back allot of good memories as I wrote it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
