Great Expectations

I didn’t know Great Expectations was still kicking it.  But then again, I didn’t know about the more upscale dating service when it first flourished, until I witnessed the process my best friend went through with a Great Expectations membership some twenty years ago.  I was the wilder, more emotionally—ahem—“adventurous” one of us two, so I was big on telepersonals, relegating my searches (not for a husband but a playmate) to the more alternative sectors of The SF Bay Guardian and the likes.   But my best bud also had more money, as she had gone the nursing school route and was by that time a Clinical Nurse Specialist, while I was only halfway through grad school. 

V. invited me, after she had acclimated, to the Great Expectations site, headquarters, whatever you want to call it.  [Keep in mind this is a few years before online dating, so we had access to a brick-and-mortar service, then.]  The front desk receptionist welcomed V. back to Great Expectations and welcomed me…though I politely brushed off any possible offers to recruit me as a client. The receptionist, a beautiful blonde, handed V. her card file, which included index card members who had over the past week shown interest in my equally beautiful friend.  We then took the cards, with their special Great Expectations identification codes, to the video library.

We then took the selected videos, video profiles, to the viewing lounge—a superbly comfortable, private, and quiet room-sized cubicle with cush chairs.  We watched each video, including a copy of V.’s, so I could “critique” it…though I just gushed at how pretty and smart she came off, what with her ebullience and clear articulation and all.  The guys were all, surprisingly, the “type” V. likes.  They were gangly, geeky, sharp and shy, and said things about ambition and travel and the like—appealing to V.’s sense of responsibility and hard-earned leisure.  She elected to allow three of the five to call her.

The way that works is V. returned the videos, handed the cards back to the receptionist, and gave approval for the three Great Expectations profile numbers.  The receptionist marked the three with a code, returning the two nays to their files.  Then we went back to the house and waited, sort of, watching movies and having a barbecued dinner, etc., until the phone rang.

V. had, over a year of membership with Great Expectations, a number of wonderful experiences dating and one fairly lengthy relationship with a computer geek named B..  In fact, had she not soon thereafter met and married her dream man (and he is a keeper) at her place of employment, she may have renewed her membership to Great Expectations—which is pricey if you think in terms of comparative competitive dating services but which is remarkably affordable if you consider the value of the outcome: a classy relationship/marriage with a classy Great Expectations fellow member.