Remember Your First Love?
July 12th 2007 22:16
Strawberry-blonde ringlets, a couple of strategically placed freckles and a tomboy outlook – all the qualities any young man about to head off to “Big School” could ask for in a woman.
We’d run up and down under the sprinkler in the front yard, catch cicada’s and laugh ourselves silly as we spun around and around, then lay down on the lawn aghast as the world revolved before our very eyes.
Yes – it was love at first sight – and it couldn’t possibly get any better!
Sharing home-made ice-blocks, sliding down grassy slopes on old sheets of cardboard and traversing umpteen bindi patches - it all made perfect sense - she was the one!
Then it happened.
And without a word of warning . . . it was suddenly – eeerrrrrrr - yuk – girl germs – no returns.
Seemingly overnight – footy, marbles, Chinese burns and cricket took the strawberry-blonde girl’s place, and the more 'manly' pleasures of sport and inflicting grievous bodily harm on your mates was the order of the day.
My first love was now an alien creature – one admired from afar – never to be made contact with for fear of being smitten with some perilous disease or at the very least the wrath of the Kindergarten brotherhood.
Bounded by the code which all boys swear allegence – that summer (and every summer after that) was spent pursuing more testosterone fuelled activities – never once giving ‘her’ a thought . . .
. . . yesterday, I ran into 'her'.
It was if time had somehow stood still.
There were no facades, just a knowing smile as we approached each other from differing ends of the metropolis – blissfully unaware that through some karma our paths would cross.
Suddenly we were both five again – and the recount of those long hot days running under the sprinkler, laughing uncontrollable came flooding back in an instant.
I’ve since forgotten the many of the names (and quite a few of the faces) that filled the gaps between that first glorious summer and now – but for whatever reason – you never forget those Strawberry-blonde girl’s in your life.
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Comment by David
I don't know about girl germs, but I remember the heat of that first kiss behind the bowling green and tennis courts, and a lot of other incidentals.
I love these 'trips down memory lane' posts of yours. They tap into so many of my best memories. At a guess? I'd say we were around the same age. 1960 birthday for me.
David ...
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
The trips down memory lane - quite often turn out to be cul-de-sacs. Sometimes it's a necessary prerequisite of life to get off the stress-filled highway's and traverse the quieter backstreets.
Glad you're enjoying the posts.
Cheers
MNG