Toledo Window Box

George Carlin's Toledo Window Box

Note: I originally wrote this to describe a "date from hell," but the more I thought about it, I decided that it was unfair for me to pin such a mean sounding label on that evening since ultimately, it was just about two very different people with very different interests who spent a few hours together under circumstances that for both of us were—at the very least—uncomfortable. And comical.

I was not yet 20, and at the time was pretty green in the world of dating. Nonetheless, I confidently bought two tickets to see George Carlin in Toledo, Ohio for his Toledo Window Box tour at Toledo's Masonic Auditorium on 2 March 1975. I was working at Commercial Aluminum Cookware (now Calphalon) in downtown Toledo at the time, and the first woman I'd asked to accompany me—Valerie Bennett, who worked at National Super Service in the same building and whose brother worked with me—turned me down. My across-the-street neighbour, Tina Estrada (whose given name, I just discovered, was Caroline), had introduced me to a friend of hers, a beautician, I think, and very possibly had suggested we go out, so in somewhat of a moment of desperation, and a desire to not waste the ticket, I asked her to go with me.

At the time, I was driving an AMC Gremlin X, and just about everything on the car was falling apart at the same time. Both the driver-side door latch and the rear window latch had broken and as a tentative fix while I searched for a new car, I held them both shut with one of those orange-brown canvas straps typically used to strap a refrigerator to a two-wheel cart, or hold furniture in place inside of a moving van. I had to get in and out via the passenger side door. It was quite the sight to see.

When I arrived at her house to pick her up, she wasn't ready, and, in fact, had forgotten about the date entirely, but to her credit, instead of blowing me off, she went upstairs to get ready. I waited patiently and chatted with her mother in the duration, and when she came down the stairs, I was a bit... shocked? She was dressed in a sparkly silvery lamé big bells pantsuit and wore matching sparkly silver four- or five-inch platform shoes. This was topped off with a fur coat.

For George Carlin.

I was wearing a regular shirt and jeans.

Maybe, maybe, maybe she had no idea who George Carlin was. Maybe she was expecting a rock concert. I can't recall how it came to be that I invited her, actually. Did Tina give me her phone number and I called her? Did I ask her while she and Tina were hanging out one day? Regardless, I'm certain that we didn't talk much about the show in advance other than my asking her, and telling her where and when it would be. I guess I assumed she'd remember.

I have no real memory about the rest of the night except that the opening musical comedy duo was pretty funny, as was Carlin, of course. I can't recall if she laughed a single time throughout the show because I was still somewhat in a state of shock. I have no idea if she enjoyed herself.

After the show, I climbed back into my side of the car, and I took her home. I don't even recall if we talked much about the show or anything else. It was the last time I saw her, and I can only imagine that she probably does consider that night as her date from hell.

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