First Love Phase One: The Classics

There are so many ways to go with this week's theme. The first reaction I had to “First Love” was, of course, to look back through the romantic mists of time and try to recall some of the early crushes, infatuations and dreamy fantasies that befell me when I was a young man; but that's the problem—I'm a man, so I don't have any of those silly memories! NOT! I do. I admit it. And I will relate at least in brief, a few of those, though much to my embarrassment.

Another course I thought I'd take would be to list some of the THINGS I remember loving from way back when. An attempt at gathering a few of the things that really made me smile inside, and still do; again, to my sometime embarrassment. Yes, I'll embarrass myself. This is a blog after all, and it is required that we do that to ourselves at least twice a month right?

But you may have predicted that I would find some Biblical route to take with this theme. But I seem to be bent on being preachy. (Much to my embarrassment again? May be.) But I think you'll like this one! But I always think that! But how many sentences in one paragraph can one start with the word 'but'? So, I think I will start with the classic 'first loves' and post those alone. Later this week, I will post again and maybe again on my other ideas.

The Classics

Fifth grade, maybe sixth, I remember going on to the local public school's playground on the way home from my Catholic school. It seems there was a skating rink (big frozen puddle) in there and it was fun to run and slide on. But here comes Karen Greenys chasing me! I was running for my life and Karen was chasing me with arms wide open and screaming my name and making loud kissing noises! I remember being terrified but I don't remember running out of breath, or getting a stitch in my side, or any of the 4 or 5 blocks I passed in getting home! In case you didn't figure it out folks: Karen was a girl! Good thing she disappeared from my school after that year!

For eighth grade, I transferred to a different Catholic school 4 blocks on the other side of my house, and guess who was there, oh so eager to ignore her old flame? Karen Greenys indeed, and I believe she truly forgot all about our icy affair. Good thing they assigned me a seat by Cindy Pac in my new home room. She was a doll and I wished SHE would have chased me around the block. I might have been a litle slower to run at that point and I'm sure she would have caught me. Alas, I waited all year for her to make her move. Nothing. Eighth grade girls are so darn mature! Finally, I put a charm bracelet in a book on her desk during the last day of school...and then ran for my life again.

High school? Yeah right. If you looked at my little biography you would have seen that I went to an all boy's boarding school. So you know what that means: all of my embarrassing 'first love' stories happened during the summer months! If you really want to learn about those, you can read this article I wrote this past January.