On Christmas Eve, 1993, my wife of 7 years cleaned out the house and moved out of my life. Divorce followed. I was alone, lonely, and confused. I wanted to find a partner with whom I could start rebuilding my life. I entered the dating world and found out it was a jungle.
Based upon my dating experiences, I started to write a newspaper column titled, "Middle Aged and Dating" for a syndicate of community newspapers owned by The Orange County Register, in Orange County, California.
I had no idea my writing would land me on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Fox and Friends.
The column developed a following because so many people were in the same situation as I—middle aged, alone, trying to make ends meet, and trying to find a mate. I dated widows, spinsters and divorcees. I had bad luck, some luck and no luck.
This book is a collection of the first 50 newspaper columns I wrote based on my new single life, each slightly rewritten in 2013. At the end of each column is a comments section for readers that will have you laughing.
In there, I get bashed, bruised, criticized, and sometimes complimented. One female reader called me, "a gemstone in a pile of rocks," while another, "a sniveling puke." She still asked me out. A blue-eyed blonde from Santa Barbara, said, "I'm amused, the only reason you're writing the column is to fill up a pile of black address books." She didn't help, she failed to leave her name and number.
The purpose of this book is to give support and encouragement to "middle aged and dating" singles, to let them know they aren't alone, and that the frustrations they're finding are the same ones being faced all over the world. It's a large fraternity, there are millions of us (30 million over age 60 in the 2010 Census). The size of our group is growing by leaps and bounds. Nearly every week, one hears of another divorce war story. "John left Susie after 27 years of marriage to run off with a 23-year-old topless dancer." By reading this book, singles will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities in middle aged dating.
A goal of the book is to make people smile and laugh because if we can't laugh at what's happening to us, we will turn angry and bitter--not good qualities for singles trying to attract a mate.
This book is unique because it's based on a man's personal dating experiences, by a regular guy who in 1993 owned a delicatessen, Tutor and Spunky's Deli in Dana Point, California, who struggled to make ends meet and who's spent more time with his face down in the dating trenches than most normal folks spend in church in a lifetime.
My buddy, Wams, of Mill Valley, California, said to me back then, "Two things we shouldn't have to be doing at our age is earning a living , and trying to dork the world." Back then, I was trying to do both.
