The year was 1982. We danced to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album and watched “E.T.” on the silver screen. John Belushi died and Prince William was born. We exercised to Jane Fonda video tapes and never missed watching “Dynasty” on TV. Gas cost 91 cents a gallon and a stamp two dimes. We were spooked by the Tylenol scare and held our breath as the recession began.
It was a year of promise and pain, of sweetness and sorrow.
But it was OUR year.
Keith (Yearbook post/1982)
Gina,
To a really sweet girl who has a nice personality. Keep up
the good looks and keep working hard and you’ll go far. See
you over the summer. Love, Keith
4/8/12
Keith was the first boy I ever kissed. It was in sixth grade
and we were playing Spin the Bottle in my girlfriend’s garage. There were eight
of us, four boys and four girls. We sat in a circle – boy, girl, boy, girl. If
the bottle pointed at someone of the same gender, you kissed the person to
their left. I got to go first because I picked the longest blade of grass. I
spun the empty bottle of Budweiser that we dug out of the trash. When the
bottle stopped spinning, it was pointing at Keith.
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to open my mouth when we
kissed. The girls and I had talked about it earlier that day when we planned to
meet up with the boys in Becky’s garage, but I realized we hadn’t made a
decision. Now I was first and everyone would probably follow whatever I
did. I thought my heart was going to
explode out of my chest. It pounded so fast it scared me. Even when I gave a
violin recital, and I was always nervous at those, my heart didn’t pound like
this.
I sat cross-legged on the cold cement. Keith looked at me
and he didn’t move. The others were egging me on. I finally got up enough
courage and got on my knees and wiggled over to Keith. I decided I wasn’t going
to open my mouth. I gave him a quick peck and everyone ooed and ahhed.
Whenever I’m with someone at a bar and they buy a bottle of
Budweiser, I remember that day so many years ago. And I also remember Becky’s
mom catching us kissing after only a few spins. She chased us all out of the
garage and sent the boys home. It wasn’t the last time we played Spin the
Bottle, but it was the last time at Becky’s house.
Keith followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a dentist.
When he joined his dad’s practice, they built a new office with
state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Keith married a nurse that he
met in dental school. They have five
kids – two sets of twin girls and a boy.
Other posts in this blog series
This is fun. I love your description of the cold cement and wiggling over. Funny, back then, no one had finished basements, right? I remember a lot of pinball machines and pool tables, air hockey and foozeball tables, and a lot of large, bare expanses of concrete that made it all echo.
ReplyDeleteMartina
That was great! I forgot about seeing who would go first by choosing a piece of grass. :)
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