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INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:00:05.640 --> 00:02:54.190 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Dan Kerr interviews Mark Speiser on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Mark Speiser shares a cute story about how, as a very shy freshman, he drummed up the courage to ask out a pretty young woman who happened to be married. SUBJECTS: 2019 Golden Eagles Reunion; Class of 1969; Dating at AU Hello, this is Dan Kerr. It is October 4, 2019. We're at the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969. Could you tell us your name? My name is Mark Speiser. You were in the class of 69?

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Yes, I was. This is my first time back in American University in 50 years. That's fantastic. Can you tell us any stories about that class experience? Oh, there were a lot of stories. I came from a small town in western Massachusetts and I came to the big city here, Washington, DC. And it was an eye opening experience just meeting students from all over the United States. Most of them who probably had more worldly experiences than I had from my small town upbringing. It was a cultural awakening for me. I love being in Washington. I tell everybody even to this very day that the best place to go to school is in Washington, DC. It's just a great place to meet people learn a lot about the world about the country. In terms of my experiences here at American University, and you're asking me to tell one story that you feel, probably left an indelible impression upon me is... I was sitting out actually, in my senior year I was going to, I was studying at the library, and I wanted to take a break. So I sat outside on a nice, very, very nice spring day, on a bench right in front of the library. And there happened to be this very, very cute, attractive, friendly young lady who was sitting there on the bench next to me, and concededly, I was very shy when I was in college. And so talking to a woman, especially a very pretty woman was a very challenging experience for me. So I started talking to her and you know, we'd converse extensively and, and I found out where she was from and and after about 10 minutes into the conversation, I asked her if she was interested in maybe getting together. And she said to me that she was married at the time. I said, Oh, it's so sad. You know how much energy and willpower it took me to ask you to if you want to get together and go out. And she said, I'm sorry, I'm married. I said, Well, what does your husband do? And she said, he's a judge. I said, Oh, I'm planning on going to law school. I said, Where is he a judge? She said, he's a justice on the US Supreme Court, William O. Douglas, I said, a justice on the US Supreme Court! I can't do anywhere near as well as he's done. So that's probably one of the most memorable stories I had when I was at American University. There's many, many more, but we don't have time for me to go over all of them, but I thought that was probably the cutest story.

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All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing that story. Okay.