And they call it puppy love

I suppose we all remember our first puppy love. You know, your first "real" boyfriend. Probably in high school. My first puppy love was John C. I fell for him in the 8th grade. He was "going with" Sandy W., who was a sort of friend of mine, but I still thought he was the cutest boy in the lunch room. I didn't have any classes with him. Just saw him at lunch and practically fell to pieces every time he looked anywhere near my direction. He and Sandy eventually hit the skids in that 8th grade way and I remember being over the moon when John finally asked me to "go with him". Now, in the 8th grade, going together consisted of having lunch together, him carrying your books every now and then, and going to movies together, dropped off and picked up, of course, by parents. Most of our little "relationships" lasted a weekend or two and usually broke up via Friend Post...notes passed along through best friends, although I do seem to remember John and Sandy being together an extraordinarily long period of time, by 8th grade standards. John and I stayed together for a whole entire weekend, LOL! I saw E.T. with him. I remember he put his arm around me, and I think he even may have gotten up the nerve to kiss me. I mean, why else were we at the movies, LOL! And although our little romance was short-lived, my crush on him remained throughout the summer before our freshman year in high school. I guess he started thinking about me at some point because he started calling me that summer. I'd hang out on my brother's bed, talking to John while Robert was at work, and I suppose we may have gotten together once or twice at the new mall we were all so terribly impressed by (and believe me, it is far less than impressive, but we lived in small town Texas and our first McDonald's was an earth-shattering event). By the time the school year started up again and we were in high school, I was in love.

So our freshman year...man, that was the year. I sat in front of John in Mrs. Feezel's English class. Mrs. Feezel was smart and funny, but all we frosh knew is that her stare could pin you to your chair and she expected quite a lot from her honors classes. John, of course, sat on the last row, so I sat in front of him and his best friend, Eric, sat next to him on his right. I had grown up with Eric. Between the two of them, I am sure Mrs. Feezel grew a few more gray hairs, and I remember that as being the funnest class I had that year.

We had to memorize and recite a scene from Shakespeare for that class, so John and I decided to recite the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Such romance! I clearly remember being in John's room at his house, trying to get him to recite his lines.
"But soft, what light breaks through yonder window"
"No, for the tenth time, it's 'what light, through yonder window breaks'"

Twenty-three years later... I can't remember any of my own lines, but I remember one of his....

Of course, that night all John wanted to do was either make out or play the drums. John was a drummer. A Drummer. He lived for those drums. And he was really good at it. Really, really good at it.

So John was my first Homecoming date. My first Favorites date. We stayed together all year. Then that summer he went off to band camp and a week or so after he got back he fessed up to something with a girl that I wasn't too happy about. Our first real break-up was a hard one for me. But it didn't last long. How could I stay mad at him? Then we broke up again right before Homecoming. Now, Eric, as much as a clown as he was, was a decent guy, and he apparently gave John what-for for leaving me without a date a week before Homecoming. I was going to be mum-less and there were few fates worse than being mum-less on Homecoming. So as the band and the drill team and the pep squad (which I was in that year) were lining up before the game, and I was trying to keep my head up without a mum, they appeared and John gave me a small mum to wear for the game. If you've never experienced Homecoming Texas-style, where the girls wear mums pinned to their chest with ribbons and tokens hanging down to their knees supplied by their dates, I don't suppose you can appreciate the magnitude of that gesture. So I had a mum, but no John. He left me for what I never got past thinking was a band slut, although I am sure she was really a very nice girl. LOL!

Of course, that didn't last long, either. Our sophmore year, I sat behind John in Chemistry and paid much more attention to him than I did Dr. Bergren. I turned 16 and got a car. We spent a lot of time in that car. Out on the airstrip not a mile from my house. And I was a Good Girl. Maybe not a Very Good Girl, but a Good Girl all the same. John was a bit of a wild child, especially compared to me. I used to think he was just a bit lost...growing up somewhere a bit beyond my reach. And I worried about him a lot. Especially after his parents divorced. I lost count of how many times we broke up and got back together, but our romance finally saw its last days around the end of our junior year. As many times as he left me to go sow seeds or whatever he was doing that I preferred not to dwell on, he always came back, and I never really settled on anyone else long enough that he wasn't welcome. Until Blake.

My sophmore year I started to develop a little crush on Blake and by junior year it was full-fledged. Of course, Blake was dating Sandy when I began my sophmore crush on him. I don't know what it was about Sandy's boyfriends. :D She did finally marry her last high school sweetheart, Greg, but I always seemed to have it for Sandy's boyfriends....except Greg, so I supposed that is good, LOL! Blake took me on my very first car date when I was almost 16. Must have been after the Homecoming Break-up with John, before we got back together again.
My time with Blake really started the night he graduated and kissed me in the parking lot of the Motel 6 where a Senior party was taking place. I dated him all through Senior year until just before Christmas of my freshman year in college. I seem to remember getting together with John for a visit at his mom's apartment during that Christmas break. I think we may have mildly contemplated revisiting our past, but at this point, romance was not puppy love and I think we both knew that although we would always be special to each other, you can't go back. There is only one puppy love.

Why am I thinking of all this?

Because John called me this morning. A couple of weeks ago, after looking up an old high school friend at Billy Bob's (he's managing it now) while there with my in-laws, I was flipping though the old year book and thinking that I really should find out what the hell happened to John. I had googled him years ago and found out he was still a drummer. Of course. He lives in Austin but tours all over the world. So this time I sent an e-mail through his band's web-site and after a few days he e-mailed me back. I was in Florida, and we all know how I can be about e-mail (I know, I know), so I had not replied and he called, wanting to make sure he had gotten my e-mail correct (after all, how many grouchywif's do you know?). He is doing well...getting married this month, his first child on the way. It was so great to hear from him. I've often wondered over the years if he ever managed to find himself and it appears he has. And the person he found seems to be pretty great. I'm looking forward to seeing his band play sometime and meeting his new bride. If you'd like to check out the band, here's the link....The Resentments