Love At First Sight

During the decade of the 1920’s, traveling preachers, endeavoring to awaken the spiritual consciousness of the nation, were common around the country. They would come into a town and erect giant tents to hold revival or “tent” meetings.

Harold had heard about one in the area and invited Bill, his college roommate, to come along to see what it was all about. Harold reasoned that these kinds of events were certainly better than studying. Besides, they were often a good place to meet nice girls. That provided all the incentive either of them needed. Their studies could wait.

As they watched and waited, Harold saw four attractive young women enter from the back of the tent. They were smiling and chatting with each other as they started down the aisle. One of the girls immediately caught Harold’s interest. He nudged Bill with his elbow. “Do you see that girl coming down the aisle over there?” he asked.

Bill looked, “Which one?”

“The pretty one. Second one back,” Harold responded.

“Uh-huh.” Bill wasn’t paying much attention. He was looking at one of the other girls.

“That’s the woman I’m going to marry!”

Bill almost fell off the bench. Looking at Harold in complete surprise he asked, “You’re going to do what? What are you talking about?” Followed quickly with, “Who is that girl?”

Harold just kept looking at her and repeated very matter-of-factly, “That’s the woman I’m going to marry.” Pausing, he then added, “I don’t know who she is. I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

As they continued to watch, the girl Harold had identified began looking around the tent and happened to glance in his direction. Their eyes met ever so briefly. “She smiled,” Harold said with a wide grin. “Did you see that, Bill?” Punching his arm. “She smiled.”