The first girl I remember eve paying attention to me was Dixie. Unfortunately, that was while I still believed girls were yucky. The difficulty was that she maintained that stance even up to the time when I changed my mind about girls. I didn’t know it at the time, but later I really liked the chase. I liked them to flirt with me some, but I wanted to pursue. That became the story of my life. If they showed too much interest, and especially if they were aggressive, I guess it frightened me away.
Jim tried to help me along with a romantic interest in girls. Jim was the tallest boy in our eighth grade class, nearly six foot. He was a lanky kid who seemed to be all arms and legs. Boys were talking about girls, but Jim was obsessed. In the 50’s there was a lot more talk than action. No 12-13 year old that I knew dated, but there was a lot of talk about kissing. Did you want to? Had you? How many times?
I worked safety patrol with my buddy Austin. In the 50’s, there were no adult crossing guards at corners, only us kids wearing white two inch wide belts around our waist on over one shoulder. Austin and I had the slowest corner of the school. Six kids total crossed at our point of duty. One of them was Sandra. She was purported to be the prettiest girl in Webster Elementary. All the guys thought so. So did I. Austin had been bugging (me like an annoying little kids do) for weeks about Sandra. Do you like her? Why don’t you kiss her? Well, OK. I finally decided I would kiss her. But how? Would I ask permission? Would I sweep her off her feet? Would I sneak up on her? We plotted and planned and finally figured out the best way. Well, maybe not the best, but one we thought would work..
We served 30th and Burt, the last corner away from the school in our direction. Sandra always crossed with us and then walked one more block where she crossed with the streetlight at the very busy 30th and Cummings. On D-day we both began talking to her at our corner and walked the extra block with her to the streetlight. Just as the light changed I planted a kiss on her cheek before she stepped off the curb. She turned and gave me a growling look and then a tiny little smile as she turned away. Austin told every boy in our class about my conquering kiss. I was the first in the class to give her a kiss. I was embarrassed. I was going to keep it a secret. The guys were proud of me. Geezs! Whats wrong with them?
It was our last summer for Vacation Bible School. Eighth graders were the oldest group in the program. There would be no more VBS picnics once we got into high school. Jim and I were hanging out during VBS all week. He asked if I would come over to his place after the final picnic. He had a surprise. He and his mother’s apartment were only two bocks from the church. She would still be at work. When we got back to the church he had also asked two girls and we all walked to his place. We no sooner got in the door when he took one of the girls and went into his bedroom and told the other girl and I to, “Have fun.”
“Have fun?” “What kind of fun?” I had never been alone with a girl other than to pull her pigtails or dip them in ink. I didn’t even know the girl. I had never talked to her before. Was this supposed to be romantic? We sat on the couch and my mind kept racing over a little talk Sister King gave to the older boys at VBS that very summer. Put them on a pedestal. Treat them like queens, respect them as a person, respect their wishes and on and on. We never talked. I assumed Jim expected us to neck or maybe more. I don’t know. We had never talked about what he wanted me to do.
After a very awkward time lapse, I told her I had to go home and got up and walked out the door. I wasn’t very far outside when I heard the door slam and she came out as well. “I gotta go home too.” We parted ways. I never saw her or Jim again. Jim and I went on to different high schools and I never saw him in church either.
It was my conscience. It was like God said to me “flee youthful lusts.” I did. It was the first time I felt like I had ever heard God speak and I had not even prayed the sinner’s prayer — yet.
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