Jun 8, 2026 · 28 min · 11 segments
Melissa shares an experience that happened to her mother in 1976. At the time, it seemed completely unremarkable. Two casual dinner dates with a man who seemed perfectly normal, until decades later…
Chris FrickeHostMy name is Melissa and this story I am telling on my mom's behalf.
Her name is Ellen and everything you're about to hear today takes place in Michigan.
It is the winter of 1976 and my beautiful mother is single.
She is 22 years old.
So in the winter of 1976, my mom meets a man named Dave.
Dave tells her that he has a pharmacology background from the University of Michigan and that he is currently living in a sailboat on the island of Grosse Ile, which is also a downriver community.
And my mom remembers thinking how odd that was and how cold he must have been to be living on a sailboat in the winter of 76.
That was something that she definitely remembered.
She went out to dinner with him twice and she said he was a super nice guy.
She said he was really charming.
She had gotten the impression that he was not interested in anything serious, just two casual dates and there was no love connection.
My mom just went out to dinner with this guy twice.
Nothing serious, no connection.
There's also no social media, nothing of this kind.
It's just over.
They just parted ways.
So my mom meets my dad in June of 1976, and the rest is history.
They meet in 76.
They are married in 1978. enjoying newlywed life.
And then in the winter of 1979, so we have three years that pass, my mom gets a phone call at their little starter home.
Hello?
It is Dave.
My name is Melissa and this story I am telling on my mom's behalf.
Her name is Ellen and everything you're about to hear today takes place in Michigan.
It is the winter of 1976 and my beautiful mother is single.
She is 22 years old.
So in the winter of 1976, my mom meets a man named Dave.
Dave tells her that he has a pharmacology background from the University of Michigan and that he is currently living in a sailboat on the island of Grosse Ile, which is also a downriver community.
And my mom remembers thinking how odd that was and how cold he must have been to be living on a sailboat in the winter of 76.
That was something that she definitely remembered.
She went out to dinner with him twice and she said he was a super nice guy.
She said he was really charming.
She had gotten the impression that he was not interested in anything serious, just two casual dates and there was no love connection.
My mom just went out to dinner with this guy twice.
Nothing serious, no connection.
There's also no social media, nothing of this kind.
It's just over.
They just parted ways.
So my mom meets my dad in June of 1976, and the rest is history.
They meet in 76.
They are married in 1978. enjoying newlywed life.
And then in the winter of 1979, so we have three years that pass, my mom gets a phone call at their little starter home.
Hello?
It is Dave.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.