When you are full of yourself, someone is bound to shoot you down. | Eastern NC Now

    When you are full of yourself, someone is bound to shoot you down. I learned an important lesson during my "Kiss Years as a swinging single".

    While I was living at Oak Creek Singles complex just off Memorial Drive on Northern Avenue, in 1972, there were many opportunities to meet and greet girls. The complex covered both sides of Northern Avenue and had two pools and one large clubhouse.

    Almost everyone had a roommate back in those days since very few of us were far along in a career to live alone. Of course anyone who has ever had roommates, know that they come and go on a regular basis.

    I guess the fact that there was a road between the two sections of the complex led me to the false assumption that dating multiple girls in the same complex was appropriate. This was at a time when "going steady" was not the operative word for dating.

    I had been "dating" several girls in the complex without any real commitment either way, but I thought discretion was the better approach to take so I kept what I thought was a low profile at the clubhouse.

    To be clear, it was not really lying about the situation, it was more like benign neglect of the truth.

    As with all bad intentions, this one blew up in my face in a rather unique way. It seems that all three girls needed roommates at the same time and decided to move into a three-bedroom apartment together.

    Of course, it did not take long before each of them knew my transgressions. One night I got an invite from one of the girls for dinner at her apartment. I was never one to turn down a free home cooked meal.

    I arrived with the appropriate bottle of wine and noticed the table set for four people. When I asked who the other two people were, the other two girls came out of the back of the apartment and sat down at the table.

    Realizing that I had been caught red handed; I could only try to make the most of the situation and said

    "I'm not sure I brought enough wine." I was able to get a few bites down before they threw me out.

    It went over as you might expect. That ended my arrangement rather quickly, however I was later able to make amends with one of the girls, but the other two always treated me somewhat chilly after that.

    The freewheeling 1970's had a way of making us all feel like Hugh Hefner but in my defense, the women in the complex were no less ambitious in their "dating" habits and the tables were turned by me several times as well.