My grandma's friend Doris had the original game from the 1960's, and one rainy day while she and Gran were playing cards my sister and I were allowed to play Mystery Date as long as we promised to be very careful. The clothes, the boys, the anticipation of meeting your secret admirer: it was love at first turn. A few years ago I asked for the game for Christmas and my mother gave me the bad news: they stopped printing the retro version years and years ago, so I could either have the modern version (which was a mess of an update) or she could try to find it on ebay, but every version she had found was in the neighborhood of $200.
I was, of course, heartbroken. I thought I was doomed to never see my soul-mate (the prom date) ever again.
And then I came to work today.
I have worked at The Afternoon for five years, and I can tell you, hand-to-heart, honest-to-goodness, I have never been so excited to see anything as I was to see this Mystery Date retro reprint game when I came in this morning. I may have teared up a little. Mystery Date is a great present for grown up girls who might remember the original or even for your own little girl--the magic is still there, even after all these years. Unexpected bonus: the free one-year subscription to Family Circle magazine just for buying the game--as if I needed another excuse!