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Tuesday, July 24: It was the summer of 1973, between my junior and senior years in high school. I was in a beach house our sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda (SPL), had rented for a week; I think it was on 73rd Street in Virginia Beach. I happened to be in a room shaving my legs, I had one leg propped up on a chair and was bending over it with a razor. David walked in on me and we both laughed in an awkward moment. That night, we stayed up all night outdoors on the beach. We sat up and talked about everything, then fell asleep on a blanket with the waves crashing on the beach and the stars overhead.
Later we went to a Seals & Crofts concert at Hampton Coliseum. “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl,” “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” “Hummingbird:” too many songs seemed to sum up our romance. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with him. He was my first “true” love, whatever that means. The kind that makes your heart want to jump out of your chest. There’s a lot that happened that fall, mainly a lot of partying and laughter. He was someone who could make me laugh. He also hurt me, not physically but emotionally. One time, I went ballistic on him in the middle of Rich’s Grocery Store because I heard a rumor he had been out with a girl named Debbie. This while we were dating.
On New Year’s Eve of that same year, he said goodbye to me at my doorstep. He told me he loved me and I said the same. I never heard from him again. In those days, a girl didn’t call a boy. As a matter of fact, I still prescribe to this theory, stated so aptly by Wu Tang: “Do not chase people. Be you and do your own thing and work hard. The right people who belong in your life will come to you, and stay.”
He must not have been the right person. He wasn’t. That’s obvious. But strangely, as we humans tend to hope against all logic, it took me over 30 years to accept it. When I saw him at a York High Reunion in 2004, nearly 31 years after we dated, I saw him across a room and my heart went wild again.
Strange thing, love. We don’t choose who we love, or who we don’t love. Love chooses us, or it leaves us by the wayside. I loved him in my own secret way for a long time. But. He didn’t love me back. I could only truly accept that, way too late, in 2004.
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FrizzText opens his FrizzText: Story Challenge: Letter “D” this week with a nice set of memory joggers: Do you have to share a story or a short reflection tagged with the letter “D”? For example I’ve (FrizzText that is) written about DANCING or DOLPHINS, about DARWIN or DESIGN, sang some blues about DIAMONDS or DISSATISFIED ladies, wrote about darkness or deserts, death and differences, doors and docks, dogs and dandelions, dolphins, donkeys and Dubrovnik, Disco Queens or Dragon Boat Races, documents and departures, the divided world or design developments, dreams and desires, distant-points-of-view, Dubai or disasters, dialogs and ducks – I’m sure you’ll find an own story or a short reflection tagged with “D”! Feel free to add in the comments the link to your personal interpretation of the letter “D”!!!
frizztext said:
it’s good not to forget those landmarks of feelings:
” He was my first “true” love, whatever that means. The kind that makes your heart want to jump out of your chest…”
catbirdinoman said:
Yes, I know Frizz. I think it’s good to share these milestones in our lives. They’re there anyway, carried around in our hearts, so why not share them? 🙂
travelerlynne said:
Sweet, tender story about your first love. We don’t forget them.
catbirdinoman said:
No, we never do, do we? Thanks Lynne!
Carol said:
I wonder if they remember us the way we remember them . . . .
catbirdinoman said:
Yes, Carol, I used to wonder that, but now I know. At least in this case, he doesn’t! 😦
Madhu said:
Sweet and poignant. Filled me with nostalgia 😦
catbirdinoman said:
Thanks Madhu! It’s crazy how love can linger in your heart for years!! Thanks so much for visiting my blog in force today! 🙂