Darlene
Darlene,
She had to be the single most beautiful girl I have seen in my life to this point. It was sometime in the 1974 or 1975 and I just started this new School yet again, this time some sleepy little town in Ohio, Bethel or Williamsburg, I am not sure. This was my third School this particular School year.
After homeroom she came right up to me and introduced herself very boldly. She had the fullest head of hair I have ever seen. Long, curly, and full. She stood at my height and gave me the most intense eye contact I could remember. I couldn’t turn away. All I did was stand there like an idiot and mumble and stare at her.
She was in all my classes and I sat at the back of the classroom being the new kid, and she sat up front. So all I saw during class was the back of her head. She sometimes would turn her head and look at me and smile this huge smile, then turn back around. I was smitten completely but didn’t know how to talk to her.
So the weeks passed I would smile at her she would smile at me. Then, Halloween came. On Halloween my mother drove my two little brothers and myself to town for some trick or treating. I did not dress up as anything, my little brothers dressed as bums, it was all we could do back then.
I would stand on the sidewalk as they ran up to the houses and get their treats, and then I had to look through the treats for anything that looked odd. My mother rolled the car along the street as we progressed.
A group of kids approached and looked to be my age, and I tried to act as inconspicuous as I could. The small group was four or five girls all giggling and very animated. I couldn’t tell if I knew them or not from School as they approached. They all had some sort of costumes on. They were skipping and making circles around each other as they came.
One of the girls broke from the group and ran right up to me and started to slowly dance around me in circles and giggling. I started spinning around trying to keep up with her. Then she stopped suddenly and leaned in and kissed me on the lips. It was quick and caught me completely unexpected. I didn’t have time to react as she pulled away and started to move off. Before she did she pulled her mask away and smiled at me. It was Darlene. Who else could it have been. It was my first kiss.
My mother wanted to know who it was and what was going on. I knew then and there something had happened and something was changing. I knew I was different now, and there was no going back from here. I felt older, more mature somehow, and wiser in some way. Yet I knew nothing. That small kiss changed me somehow, and my mother speaking the way she did, I felt on top of the world. A seventh grader, who was becoming aware.
The following week as I arrived home from School one day, we moved. I was crushed, as I knew I would never see her again. I didn’t even know her last name or where she lived. I never worked up the courage to talk to her even after the kiss. She consumed my every thought and I couldn’t wait to get to School each day. It was the first time in my life I remember wanting to go to School.
Her memory will never go away. She was my fist real crush, and she was my first kiss as fleeting as it was. Now and again I ponder what became of her, and what could have been if we had stayed.
There were to be more crushes and more moving on, but none as sweet and sacred as that one.
She had to be the single most beautiful girl I have seen in my life to this point. It was sometime in the 1974 or 1975 and I just started this new School yet again, this time some sleepy little town in Ohio, Bethel or Williamsburg, I am not sure. This was my third School this particular School year.
After homeroom she came right up to me and introduced herself very boldly. She had the fullest head of hair I have ever seen. Long, curly, and full. She stood at my height and gave me the most intense eye contact I could remember. I couldn’t turn away. All I did was stand there like an idiot and mumble and stare at her.
She was in all my classes and I sat at the back of the classroom being the new kid, and she sat up front. So all I saw during class was the back of her head. She sometimes would turn her head and look at me and smile this huge smile, then turn back around. I was smitten completely but didn’t know how to talk to her.
So the weeks passed I would smile at her she would smile at me. Then, Halloween came. On Halloween my mother drove my two little brothers and myself to town for some trick or treating. I did not dress up as anything, my little brothers dressed as bums, it was all we could do back then.
I would stand on the sidewalk as they ran up to the houses and get their treats, and then I had to look through the treats for anything that looked odd. My mother rolled the car along the street as we progressed.
A group of kids approached and looked to be my age, and I tried to act as inconspicuous as I could. The small group was four or five girls all giggling and very animated. I couldn’t tell if I knew them or not from School as they approached. They all had some sort of costumes on. They were skipping and making circles around each other as they came.
One of the girls broke from the group and ran right up to me and started to slowly dance around me in circles and giggling. I started spinning around trying to keep up with her. Then she stopped suddenly and leaned in and kissed me on the lips. It was quick and caught me completely unexpected. I didn’t have time to react as she pulled away and started to move off. Before she did she pulled her mask away and smiled at me. It was Darlene. Who else could it have been. It was my first kiss.
My mother wanted to know who it was and what was going on. I knew then and there something had happened and something was changing. I knew I was different now, and there was no going back from here. I felt older, more mature somehow, and wiser in some way. Yet I knew nothing. That small kiss changed me somehow, and my mother speaking the way she did, I felt on top of the world. A seventh grader, who was becoming aware.
The following week as I arrived home from School one day, we moved. I was crushed, as I knew I would never see her again. I didn’t even know her last name or where she lived. I never worked up the courage to talk to her even after the kiss. She consumed my every thought and I couldn’t wait to get to School each day. It was the first time in my life I remember wanting to go to School.
Her memory will never go away. She was my fist real crush, and she was my first kiss as fleeting as it was. Now and again I ponder what became of her, and what could have been if we had stayed.
There were to be more crushes and more moving on, but none as sweet and sacred as that one.
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