Flashback Friday #25

My first big crush and the one that crushed me.

I was in the fifth or sixth grade when I made a remarkable discovery. Girls. (I wonder if the new glasses had anything to do with it?) Girls used to be icky, and had cooties and were general nuisances. I woke up one morning, and all that had changed.

The first girl I really fell head over heels for was a petite blonde in my class named Elenore Denise Abrams. (Don't worry, I very rarely, if ever use any one's real name on my blog. She could be reading now and not know it)I was sure that she was an angel in human form. I even told my brother that I thought she was cute.

MISTAKE!!!!! A word of warning for those of you who may be entering the time of life I am describing. Don't tell your older brother anything about it. My brother must have been suffering from some type of hearing deficiency. What I told him was "There is a girl in my class named Elenore, and I think she is cute. What he heard was " I am madly in love with a girl named Elenore and I want you to tease and torment me about it until the ends of eternity". As I would enter a room, he would turn on his tape recorder and sing into it "Nottaguy loves Elenore Abrams, oh yes he really does". When I would run over to protest, he would flick the microphone off with his thumb, unbeknown to me. Anytime there was a wedding on TV, he would ask if my wedding with Elenore was going to look like that. He was unmerciful. Years afterwards I would still hear of my love for Elenore from him.

Since I was short, fat & wore spectacles, I wasn't what she was looking for in a long term relationship (or even short term). The fact of the matter was, most of the girls weren't looking my way, but that was OK. The one that did like me, I called "a fat thing" (like I had room to talk), and she said little else to me up until the day we graduated.

Another girl I took a liking to was Annie Angle. She was taller than Elenore, brunette, with a smile that would melt your heart. After she would melt your heart, it made you just like her, heartless. At our school, you sent valentines to all your classmates, not just the ones you liked (like in Happy Valentine's Day Charlie Brown). I opened the valentine from her and was crushed. It pictured an elephant holding a heart in it's trunk. Off to the right was my name and an arrow pointing to the elephant. Kids don't realize just how hurtful they can be. I would have rather not received a valentine from her, like Charlie Brown, than to receive one that insulted me.

Well, I graduated with both girls (Elenore had been going by her middle name Denise since 7th grade). I haven't seen Annie since graduation (no loss). I ran into Denise at a graduation party. It seems that the mother of my son-in-law (the Woodsman) is Denise's cousin. (cue "It's A Small World After All") She came up to me and asked if I remembered who she was. I smiled and replied "Yes, you used to be Elenore Denise Abrams. I don't know what your married name might be." Her eyes got big and she said "I haven't been called Elenore in years."

I discovered that when your heart breaks, It will mend. If either of these relationships had panned out, Lady Nottaguy-TYG and I wouldn't be celebrating 24 years of marital bliss this month. Check out the Flashback Friday Carnival dealing with "Love, look at the two of us" at My Tiny Kingdom.