FARGO -- Peggy, if you're out there, please call Steve.
Or was it Penny, or maybe even Betty?
Steve Hicks, 41, of Fargo wouldn't usually go to extensive lengths to pursue a missed connection in a bar, but he said the 5-foot tall "cute little thing" he met at the Tracy Lawrence concert late last month at The Hub in Fargo is something special.
"Usually if I get a number at a bar, if I lose it or whatever, I just chalk it up to being bad luck, but this one I want to track down," he said.
Hicks has gone so far as to place an ad this week in the Grand Forks Herald's City Briefs section.
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The ad: "LOOKING FOR YOU! Girl who I met at the Hub in Fargo, wearing black shirt with Cancun on sleeve. # didn't show on my cell. 701-799-1384."
Hicks placed the ad in the Herald because the woman told him she was from Crookston, Minn., but living in Grand Forks.
Here's how the night went down, according to Hicks:
Hicks caught her attention at the concert and took her and a group of friends to Cadillac Ranch Country Bar and Dance Hall. They hit it off, dancing to a few songs and getting to know one another above the dull roar of the bar. Unfortunately, this made catching her name impossible, but he knew it sounded something like "Peggy," "Penny" or "Betty," he said.
"It was so loud in the bar, and I have bad hearing on top of it," he said. "I was going to get her name again."
But by the end of the evening, Hicks said he felt he was being pulled in two different directions - a friend needed a ride home because her boyfriend was leaving, but "Penny" was trying to exchange numbers with him. She got his number, but Hicks realized he had left his phone in his friend's car, so he told her to call him. When he retrieved his cell phone, he found either the call hadn't gone through or the number wasn't recorded.
Just like that, she was gone as quickly as they'd met.
In hopes of finding her, Hicks tried to find a local country radio station. He planned to call in to the morning show and relay his message in case she or one of her friends was listening, but Hicks had no luck finding a local radio station. Hicks even called Crookston High School, asking them to look through yearbooks from the years she might have graduated to find someone who fits her description.
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"This probably sounds like kind of a lot," said Hicks. "I usually wouldn't go to these lengths. There's definitely something different about her."
The elusive Peggy - or Betty - or Penny - is a 42-year-old "bubbly little thing" with long, brown hair. He remembers that she was just laid off from her job. He took out the Herald ads hoping to catch her attention because she might be scanning the paper for jobs, he said.
He does remember she's a great dancer. And the night they met, she was wearing a black shirt she had borrowed from a friend that said "Cancun" on the sleeve.
Hicks doesn't know exactly what she might remember about him, but he wants her to know how he feels.
"I was going to call her, if (her cell phone number) would have come through. If she gets this message, I'd like to take her to the John Anderson concert ... or any other thing she'd like to do. If I find her in time for Valentine's Day, she'd definitely get a good valentine.
"I'm kind of a reserved guy on stuff like this, so this is way different for me."
